


All of My Love

by CultureisDarkBeer



Series: Rooted In Friendship [6]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: An X-File Case, Angst, F/M, Post-Canon, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:00:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 55,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24623590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CultureisDarkBeer/pseuds/CultureisDarkBeer
Summary: Her monsters like to wrestle with his demons.NEW Chapter 20 - The official ending to the entire Rooted in Friendship series.Come for the fan art, stay for the storyArtwork by MS31x129
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Rooted In Friendship [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1037270
Comments: 210
Kudos: 76





	1. Going Back to Cali

**Author's Note:**

> Jeffrey Spender and Mulder take a trip to California on a lead to uncover more truths of Samantha and Scully. CSM is dead and Jeffrey now has access to all his secrets. Kersh’s death occurred in chapter 13 of Book 5. Cassandra has returned and is living a peaceful life with her son Jeffrey in Virginia. She keeps in touch with Scully and Mulder. Mulder is still working in the basement of FBI Headquarters, Scully is Assistant Director in another department, Skinner is Deputy Director, Monica is working for the CIA, and Doggett works for the DoD. Monica and Doggett are together romantically. William is dating Molly(Founder’s Mutation), her brother Kyle is friend’s with William and they all attend Gibson’s School for the Extraordinarily Gifted. Maggie is Mulder and Scully’s daughter. They are married.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/49980961011/in/photostream/)

**School for the Extraordinarily Gifted**

Gibson woke up screaming and wild eyed as he bolted upright in his bed, sweat beading along where his hairline should be. 

Kyle, hearing his wails from down the hall, came rushing into his room where he found him frozen, looking like sculpted marble, the scar on his head veining through the whitewash.

“Gibson,” he called out. “Gibson, it’s okay. It was a dream.” Gibson blinked in succession then tilted his head towards Kyle, and Kyle drew out a breath of relief. “I had one too. Been having them for a while now, but they are getting worse.”

“They’re happening to me too,” William piped in, standing at the door frame, Molly behind him tightening up her robe. “I hear the voices, calling me to go.. Somewhere. I see visions, flashes of checkpoints, mass gatherings. Speaking of The Cleanse. The real cure. It’s all very odd.”

“You think it’s someone like us sending messages unknowingly? Maybe they’re reaching out hoping to find us?” Kyle asked.

“No,” William said solemnly. “And I don’t think it’s directions to the ultimate spring break party either.” 

**Welcome to the Motel California**

The rain had followed Mulder from Virginia, currently creating mini rivers on the windshield of his rental car. Jeffrey sat in the passenger seat. Scully, tied up at work and not wanting their daughter to travel, did not follow, but she didn’t attempt to hold him back either.

Covering his head with a flimsy newspaper, the rain pelted Jeffrey as he ran back to the car with the room keys. It reminded Mulder that Jeffrey never did get the hang of roughing it. “Mulder, this place is a dump. Probably has bed bugs. You sure you want to stay here?”

Mulder couldn’t help but laugh to himself. “It will be fine, Jeff. We don’t need a five star hotel. Scully and I have stayed here before.”

Jeffrey groaned at the sight. “The building inspector for this place was either bribed or drunk on the job. I bet you could rent one of these rooms by the hour.”

“Probably, but it will have to do. I’m going to need a little time to unpack and shower. Meet you at the Hyatt’s bar across the street in about two hours?”

Mulder pushed open the door to his room with one hand and rolled his overnight luggage over the tattered tan carpet with the other. It had been a while since he was in a motel room without Scully. He didn’t like it. Not one bit. Made him feel a bit empty inside and out of sorts without his partner. The glowing red digital display on the nightstand told him it was three minutes to seven. Time to video his daughter so he could read her their nightly bedtime book. Tonight was Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. 

Two Hours Later...

“I went ahead and ordered you a beer,” Jeffrey said, pointing to the condensating bottle to his left.

Mulder threw his leg around the stool of the upscale bar and tipped his bottle towards Jeffrey as a thank you before taking a long drink. “So how do you know that this research facility will have what we’re looking for?” Mulder asked.

“I don’t,” Jeffrey replied. “But my mother said it was the one she remembered. It was only one of two reproductive medical centers that our father kept in his address book that my mother had. The other was for an address in Allentown, PA, The Lombard Research Facility.”

Mulder took another drink. It tasted like liquid cereal flakes with a hint of orange and bitter weeds. Jeffrey’s taste in beer was terrible. He recognized the address in PA right away. It was the location of Scully’s stored ova. “What did you know of my sister? I mean you had to know she wasn’t your _real_ sister.”

Jeffrey fidgeted with his napkin, soaking up droplets of condensation. “My mother spoke about wanting a girl and the way they explained it to me she was an orphan they adopted. I was little. I didn’t question it and I liked having a sister. Not being so alone.”

Mulder chewed at the inside of his cheek and twisted his wedding ring. That bit a little harder than it should. “What was she like when you knew her?”

“Sweet.. Kind of quiet. Had a gentle side to her, but she also had underlying strength. She’d go away for a while on these trips and everytime she came back she was sick. She’d talk to me about running away, but I would beg her not to. I didn’t want her to leave me. If I only knew even a little bit of what was going on. Sometimes I’d find her sitting alone in the dark. I thought she was playing hide and seek. She told me the dark was where she was safe. I was too young to understand, but I do feel a responsibility. Maybe that’s why I volunteered to adopt the clone’s children. To possibly have a piece of her back.”

The plastic surgery Jeffrey had undergone had all but erased the horrors that had befallen him. Now, in the dim lit bar, Mulder could see the subtle cracks start to show. “Your girlfriend isn’t going to mind you creating a ready made family for her?” Mulder asked, his attention now on a man at the other end of the bar hitting on a waitress half his age.

“I don’t know,” Jeffrey said bluntly. 

Mulder pushed forward even though it felt like he had swallowed a very pissed off black cat. “Did Samantha have friends?”

“Yeah, but mostly she hung out with two girls. I remember them. Coming over and playing, laughing. There were some good times for her. I hope some of them were with me. She was skinny, but healthy. She loved animals. I swear, I wish with all my heart I could have saved her.” The bartender handed Jeffrey another beer and he tipped back the one he was currently on to hand him the empty bottle. 

Mulder grunted. With this next sentence he had to swallow some pain, but he felt it was worth admitting. “I’m glad she had you Jeffrey. I’m glad she wasn't completely alone.”

**Meanwhile, in the computer lab at Gibson’s School for the Extraordinarily Gifted**

“Override, I think you’ve been hanging around too much with my dad,” William spouted. “Lay off his conspiracy juice.” 

“All I’m saying is I started getting these dreams around the same time that 5G tower went up. Mulder said there are no coincidences.”

“Mulder said, Mulder said. What, you got a crush on him?” 

“Fuck you, Kyle,” Override returned, throwing his empty Monster drink at him, as his face turned the shade of an overripe tomato.

William noticed Molly raise her eyebrows and tilt her head, so he moved on. “Override, it makes sense that when the DoD decided to share their sub-6 band for 5G commercial use it left it vulnerable for hackers and security issues, but hackers using it for mind control? That sounds like an X-Files case my mother told me about.”

“Well, maybe just telepathic communication,” Override argued.

Kyle, who, after being pelted in the shoulder with Override’s empty drink can was quietly playing with the mouse of a powered down computer, spoke. “What if the military was the one testing out a new method for command and control. A new type of surveillance and reconnaissance system based on telepathy and mind control. What then?”

“I’m getting dressed,” Molly said as she got up from her chair. “As Dana would remind us, if you don’t have proof, then you must question if it really exists.” 

**A short time later at the Motel California**

Mulder stumbled into his motel room and flopped on the bed, clothes and all. He rolled to his side and loosened his tie. How many times would he walk this path, torture himself and the dead? At least the fire ignited to find the truth this time would be without smoke. He reached for the diary on his nightstand and flipped the pages rereading the words he had read countless times in the past, until they bled together and the oil of his skin marked the pages. If only to live the experience through her eyes, of how she felt, that now, his actions might match her wishes, another part of her redemption that came when she left for the stardust. That night Samantha hugged him, held her fragile arms around his tall frame to give him the release she had finally experienced. For him to carry that guilt all those years- that one time she needed him, he stood frozen and did nothing. That he never could save her, but in that starlight he forgave himself and received her forgiveness. 

Mulder read:

_"Sometimes I think my memories were taken by the doctors but not all of them. I remember faces. I think I had a brother... with brown hair, who used to tease me. I hope someday he reads this and knows I wish I could see his face for real."_

_"No more. No more tests. No more questions. I'm getting out of here and not turning back. Tonight. Tonight I'm going to run far, far away. I can't let them catch me. They'll kill me if they do. Running for my life, for the rest of my life."_

He read other pages, some filled with stories, others deep thoughts or vague memories she wasn’t certain weren’t dreams. He wanted to believe she wrote this to be read, that it was not an invasion of privacy or violence to her memory, but a way for her to open up and for him to know her in later years. Delicately, he fingered the inside cover, softly tracing the pattern, designs and doodles, on the rough paper. Then he held it to his nose and inhaled, hoping that some fragrance of her might remain. There were no more tears, but his closed eyes burned just the same. He kissed the cover and returned it to the nightstand. Whatever she wanted him to know, she had already told him in one form or another. 

Mulder picked up his cell and sent Scully a simple text: **You up?** then let the phone drop to his chest and closed his eyes. The room rocked from his last three beers, but he felt himself starting to slip. That was until the phone buzzed, then buzzed again. She was up and she was calling him.

“Scully,” Mulder answered in a voice even scratchier than normal. He kind of liked it though, made it sound sexy. “You’re awake.”

“Maggie had a hard time falling asleep without her daddy and William just came home. He brought Molly home with him and I told him it was okay for her to stay the night. I’m not sure exactly how to deal with that situation. I think it’s something we need to discuss.”

“Okay.”

Scully hummed. “I was unwinding. Reading a book when your text came through.” Scully’s voice was like an elixir that he was waiting for all day. It calmed him in a way the alcohol could not and provided its own truth serum.

He raked his hand through his hair. “47 years. Almost half a century. Scully, it feels like yesterday.”

“You didn’t have to walk this path again.”

“I know,” Mulder said, staring up at the cracks and falling plaster popcorn on the stained ceiling. “It is different this time. I’m not searching for her. I found my peace. Whatever we discover or don’t, this is the end.”

“I can always make the flight if you need me.”

“But I have Jeffrey,” Mulder quipped. Then he dropped his tone. “If I need you, you know I’ll call.”

“No you won’t,” Scully returned. “But I’ll save your ass anyway.”

That drew a chuckle from deep in Mulder’s gut. “Well, I better try and get some sleep.”

“Mulder, there is something else.”

Mulder’s stomach tightened, he knew that tone. “What’s wrong?”

“You know the protests..”

“Yeah, have you been calling your lobbyists and legislators?”

“Yes. Ever since we had the turnover in the FBI and Morales became Director we’ve gained the power to put the pressure on from within. Alika is using all her pull as well to be part of the committee for the creation of new legislature. There are already multiple changes in the works across all cities, but this will be a slow steep climb and even slower on the federal level. Have you made your calls?”

“I still have some friends in congress if you can believe it and yes, I’ve got a bug in their ear so big they’ve become entomophobic. Although, that’s a bug I’ve had planted for years, but that’s not what you’re looking to discuss.”

“No. The protestors have uncovered Kersh’s death.”

Mulder sat up in bed. His synapses firing despite the buzzing in his head from his previous alcohol consumption. “Scully, Kersh was killed by Andromeda.”

“Kersh was killed, restrained in my cuffs. I was in the process of escorting him to the station to have him processed.” 

Mulder felt the heat crawling up his spine and adrenaline filling his biceps. “He shot at me with intent to kill.”

“So now we’re judge, jury, and executioner? Guilty or not, William should have been arrested.”

Mulder rubbed his temple with his thumb. “William was influenced by an alien entity embedded in his brain. It was an emotionally charged situation and Andromeda took advantage of the weakness.”

“We hardly blinked when he died.”

“Because he was _Kersh_ ,” Mulder said, raising his voice, “not because he was black.”

“Kersh _is_ black. He had a voice. He had a family that is now without a father. You’re judging him from your position and perspective. You have never walked one day in his skin and felt the views of the rest of the world, yet he did every day of his life. He was never afforded the affluent childhood in your lily white neighborhoods. He could never get away with spouting to positions of authority the way you did and do. You think they would have put up with your antics coming from someone in his skin? You think your old partner Reggie could have acted the way you did and remained at his position in the FBI? I know as a woman, I was held to standards far different than yours. Can’t you recognize that?”

“Of course I can, Scully.” Mulder leaned back against the headboard amazed at the things he never bothered to contemplate. At the things he hadn’t needed to because of his background. He would never consider himself racist, but wasn’t he trying to judge Kersh’s decisions in life by forcing them through his values and moral lens of the world? 

Scully cut through his thoughts. “Then, Mulder, you need to consider that maybe Kersh’s choices weren’t choices after all, and you must ask yourself, would Kersh still be alive if he was white?”

Mulder put the phone down on the bed, covered his face and massaged his forehead with his fingertips, then picked the phone back up. “Are we really having this conversation about our son?”

“We’ve never had that conversation _with_ our son and we are not certain exactly the type of environment he was raised in.”

“Scully, the boy had a Malcolm X poster on his ceiling. He quoted him to you like he was someone he respected and admired. He _identified_ with him. William even told me he and his friends were going to join the protesting tomorrow night. Those aren’t signals to me that skin tone would influence our son to kill.”

“And if you have black friends then you can’t be racist? His possible lack of exposure to certain cultures couldn’t play a factor that Andromeda possibly took advantage of? Prejudices you were taught from birth don’t have an underlying influence one way or another?”

Mulder sat silent on the other end, knowing at that moment he had no answers. 

“Regardless, we’re covering up a crime,” Scully finished after a few beats.

“A crime committed by an alien entity who currently isn’t even on the planet.” Mulder felt like he had been kicked in the diaphragm. All his breath had been taken away and he no longer knew what to think, but his brain still searched to find some moral compass.

“Morales called me late tonight and told me that I will be called in for questioning. There will be an investigation. Depending on the outcome William and I could be prosecuted. Given recent events, they’re looking for examples, people to be held accountable. Mulder, they are right, there must be change.”

Mulder shook his head. “So the political machine, instead of dismantling and rebuilding the broken system, has decided to use you as one of their scapegoats.”

“Until I have more information, I’m not jumping to conclusions. As of now, I have not been suspended.”

“Suspended? Jesus, Scully,” Mulder said, shaking his head again. This was nothing he wanted to hear. Comparing Scully to the corrupted law enforcement out there was unfathomable. “We’ll get whatever proof we need. We will exonerate you and William.”

On the other end of the phone, Scully took a deep exhale of breath. “We’re not going to solve this tonight, Mulder. Get some sleep.” 

“Okay,” he said and paused for a moment, allowing her steady breaths to lull him before adding, “Goodnight, Scully.”

“Goodnight, Mulder.”

**The following Day...**

“It’s not here,” Mulder called out in defeat, his own voice echoing back at him as he closed the last file cabinet. The arid dusty air of the abandoned research facility stinging his lungs with every breath. He watched his step to avoid the broken glass from windows shattered by rocks decades prior. If they sold tickets it might have been a good place for the haunted maze for halloween. 

“Maybe it was all a lie. She was so young. Maybe they didn’t harvest her ova,” Mulder said fumbling into the gloom, following the sound of Jeffrey’s footsteps. 

“Mulder,” Jeffrey called with an edge of excitement. Mulder shone his flashlight over to Jeffrey. He was whiter than the dress of a virgin whore on her wedding day. 

“You found it?” Mulder asked. 

“No. This is about Dana. There’s a file here. Logs from other facilities, from Allentown. Mulder, some of those Kurt Crawford twins, were created using Scully’s ova. See this group right here? Scully is their mother.”

Mulder drew out a breath of disgust. “Jeffrey, yes and no. The Kurt hybrids didn’t inherit their DNA from their mothers. They were created from the original Kurt Crawford and alien DNA. The ova they used for the Kurt was washed. The nucleus was removed. They wouldn’t have Scully’s DNA. I was at that facility, I know.”

“Mulder, there is a subgroup of hybrids created from her DNA.”

“Jeff, we’ve been through this. Scully met one of her “daughters” many years ago. She was part of those hybrid tests. Nothing but pain came from it. This is not a stone I need to turn over again. I know what’s underneath and most of it is torment and death. Those hybrids were never successful. There’s another cold storage on the other side of this wing. Let’s go see what’s in it.”

They hardly entered the room when vile vicious chunks of Jeffrey’s lunch oozed warmly down the stainless vaults. The stench of rotting biogenetic material hung low in the air and Mulder barely held his own. Given the time that had passed and the last time electricity graced this unit, one would think everything had already decomposed, but even so, that smell of death lingered and sealed into the cracks and crevices. The heavy rains of the hot humid California summer dredged up the rot of the past. Mulder forged ahead to the S’s, but Scully’s name was absent. Back to the “M” labeled cabinet and there was Samantha’s tab. Mulder rolled the drawer open carefully, but it was filled with only empty holders. No ova. According to the log, some would have remained, at least one or two vials, but there was none. He had learned nothing concerning Samantha and even less he wanted to know about Scully.

“This is the last of Samantha’s DNA, Mulder,” Jeffrey said, holding it up to the light shining through the small windows along the far wall. “A tissue sample preserved as though it was a trophy.”

“I found what I came for, Jeffrey,” Mulder said in disgust. “It’s more confirmation of what they did to Samantha. Let’s go home.”

Jeffrey carefully tucked the sample inside the satchel he had prepared for the occasion and followed Mulder out.


	2. Father's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Book 3 of the Rooted in Friendship series, one of the Samantha clones married a Kurt Crawford twin and they had three children: Jenna, Miri, and Finn. Mulder had not been very accepting of a clone in his life, but Scully had persuaded him to be cordial. Kurt died in the Syndicate attacks and the Samantha clone died as an adverse reaction to the vaccine for the Spartan Virus. The Spartan virus still exists, but Scully’s vaccine is working and is available to those that have access to it.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/49989168967/in/dateposted/)

**Farrs Corner, VA**

Scully’s birthday and Mother’s day had come and gone. With the world on fire, Mulder didn’t even acknowledge it. Not because he didn’t want to, but because who even knew what day it was. He wasn’t even keeping track of the rising and setting of the sun, let alone the day of the week or the date. William hadn’t even been around to celebrate his birthday. So, when Sunday came and Father’s day appeared on the calendar, Mulder never gave it a thought. 

Scully had told him William and Molly were coming over and he decided it would be fun to grill some chicken and steaks. Some father and son bonding over a grill sounded like just what his Dr. Scully had ordered. It was time for a little relaxation now that Scully’s vaccine was finally made readily available and affordable to the public at large. The death toll had finally started to even off and other treatments started to arise. Kersh’s death was still under investigation, but the powers that be must have been preoccupied because besides an interview, some written statements and a detailed report by Scully, no further action had been taken. Guess Scully with her stellar record was harder to discredit than they first believed, or maybe going after a female was lower on their priority list. Whatever the case, if it meant Scully not having to go to trial, Mulder would take it. 

Jeffrey had dropped off Samantha’s clone’s children(Jenna, Miri, and Finn) earlier, a mutual agreement between the two brothers. Jenna and Miri shyly sat together on the back swing until Maggie carried two books out onto the back porch and handed them to her daddy. “Read Dada.” Mulder didn’t think Finn, who could pass for his doppelganger, was interested in being read to. Maggie solved that too by handing Finn one of the dog’s tennis balls. She laughed and clapped in between motioning with her arm. “Throw, Finny!”

Scully snapped a photo of Mulder sitting on the porch swing with Maggie on his lap, Jenna and Mira on each side of him reading, while Finn ran and played fetch with the dog. While the dog was good at retrieving, releasing was another story, which led into a game of keep away. Scully grumbled to Mulder that the dog was untrainable, but Mulder knew the dog was smarter than he let her think.

Mulder had just finished the 2nd book when Scully stepped out onto the porch and asked “Girls? How would you like to play a game?” 

They nodded. Maggie slid off her daddy’s lap and all three followed Scully. Scully took Miri and Maggie’s hands, smiling at Jenna as they went down the steps. Scully gave Mulder a quick wink at the bottom. “Let’s get your brother, that way Uncle Mulder can play with his grill. Do you all like chicken?”

Mulder chuckled at Scully and her rationing out the red meat consumption to just a few times a year. He shook his head with amusement and went inside to hit the bathroom quickly before firing up the grill. After seeing Doggett’s tailgating ‘grill on wheels’, Mulder decided to invest in a large cranberry colored Weber for himself. 

The shrieks, laughter and shouting he heard coming from the yard seemed to rise higher and higher; it was obvious they were having fun. Mulder’s curiosity had him propping his shoulder on the corner of the house and watching the theatrics. Scully and Miri seemed to be on one team, challenging Finn and Jenna. Maggie was just mimicking, giggling and chasing the others. The game was Beckons Wanted. Scully had played it as a child and was now teaching it to her own child. The sentiment was not lost on Mulder. 

“They caught me, Miri. Help me!” Scully yelled. Miri looked at her brother and sister and ran as fast as she could towards Scully. Maggie ran to Miri, fell once, but jolted upright quickly. A couple of pool noodles tied into circles formed the bases for the game; the object to free your teammate without getting touched by the opposing team. Miri almost made it, but Finn who had been farther away picked up speed and caught her. “Got you, Miri! We won, Jenna!”

Maggie made it to the group of four a few seconds later hugging Finn around the leg, “Got U! Finny!” 

The children fell to the ground laughing and screeching. A breeze blew Scully’s hair, her cheeks rosy from playing; carefree, the soft smile gracing her face as she watched the children, all of it enough to make Mulder’s heart pound. 

Maggie got to her feet and grabbed Scully’s legs. “I got! Mama!” Scully dramatically sank to the grass where she was included in the pouncing and uncontrollable laughter. The game ended and the girls laid their heads on Scully. Her fingers combing through the fine strands of their hair. Finn stretched out with his hands behind his head looking at the sky.

Mulder’s eyes moistened, recalling Scully many moons ago holding Theresa Nemin’s baby. All the layers of emotions when he watched her that day were the same ones coursing through him now. Watching how Maggie interacted with Finn, Jenna and Miri brought back memories of Samantha, the good memories, of his own childhood. He wanted Maggie to have those experiences too. Finn galloping towards him brought him back from his reverie. It was like looking in a mirror of the past. Finn even ran like he did. 

Slightly winded from his sprint, Finn stopped in front of him, “Uncle Mulder?”

“What’s up Finn?” 

“Well I like chicken, but well … I really like hamburgers!” he blurted with a hopeful expression on his dirt streaked face. “Do you have any?”

A huge smile enveloped Mulder’s. “I think I can hook you up with one, buddy,” he said, giving Finn a high five, and ruffling his hair. 

“Yes!” The boy whooped, thanking Mulder and ran back to the others, pointing for Maggie as he gazed up at the sky. “Look, I see a turtle.” Everyone laid down in the fragrant grass, Maggie sidled over until she was right beside Finn. “See?” He pointed again. 

“I see it, Finn,” his sister's agreed.

Mulder stifled a laugh when Maggie said, “No Finny! Willy Driggun!” That’s my girl, he thought heading to check the grill. Fifteen minutes later chicken, steak and various vegetables were sizzling nicely … including one hamburger.

Mulder flipped the T-bone and the flame surged. “Looks just about ready,” Mulder informed William who had just arrived with Molly. William fidgeted, looking back at the house like he was waiting for his mother to come save him. It made Mulder second guess if William was having a good time. He piled the steaks and chicken on the platter and headed inside with the puppy happily wagging his tail, sniffing the air behind them. 

Scully cleared the plates once everyone had finished eating, returning with coffee, cake and cookies. Way too much food even for the clan they had there. William stood as Scully sat down and Mulder could see his hands shake while he handed him a father’s day card. 

“This is from Molly and I,” William said, his breath shallow. Molly was at the other end of the table and began gnawing at a frayed nail. Now Mulder knew something was up.

Scully gave no clues away, avoiding his eye contact all together, pretending to brush away some crumbs from the table. Mulder took the envelope and opened the card. The card read,  _ The Only Thing Better than Having You For a Dad, is My Children having you for a Grandfather _ . Inside was a small picture of an .. ultrasound. 

“Scully?” Mulder questioned, searching her face. A smile creeped at the corners of her mouth. 

“Is this serious?” he asked William, holding the black and white photo up, trying not to get prematurely excited.

He only nodded, but it sent an explosion of joy into Mulder’s chest. “William, this is... congratulations. Right? Wow. This is.. wow.” He laughed and hugged his son. Unexpected and he was certain, unplanned, it would be a hard road ahead for the two of them. Even so, it was a welcomed miracle. 


	3. Egg Hunt

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/49995047757/in/dateposted/)

That night, Scully was in the playroom with Maggie, when she heard the front door. Curious, she helped Maggie quickly clean up and headed downstairs, only to see Jeffrey walk inside, say something too low for her to hear, then watched, as Mulder and Jeffrey left for the porch. Jeffrey had picked up the kids only a couple hours ago, so his visit had to be purposeful. Whatever new hell was raining, Scully wanted to know.

“The DNA results do not lie. Those children are Samantha’s. The real Samantha’s,” Jeffrey said as he paced. 

“Jeffrey, how could you possibly know that?” Mulder questioned back.

“Because the spindle proteins are different,” Scully answered through the screen door as she opened it with a creak and stepped outside. Both Mulder and Jeffrey turned in surprise.

“That’s right,” Jeffrey agreed. “In the cloning process the spindle proteins are often damaged, so they have developed a way to synthesize and repair them to ensure cell division, but it leaves a marker. A marker that would pass to the children. These children have no such marker. With 99.6% certainty, these are Mulder’s true niece and nephew.” 

“Why use Samantha’s frozen ova? Why IVF?” Mulder asked, throwing questions with a sniper’s precision. He passed Scully a weary glance.

“The clones were not meant to reproduce. They were programmed that way as a safeguard,” Jeffrey explained. “They not only exhibited rapid growth, but death as well. Their lifespans were short to easily eliminate evidence, so reproducing could not be a factor.”

“What about the father?” Scully asked, clutching Maggie, who was trying to wriggle free from her mother to play on the porch.

“That’s what I believe we need to discuss. The Kurt Crawford that fathered that child was not a twin hybrid or a clone. If you look at pictures of the others, he didn’t look as much like them as your memory wants you to recall. I believe he was created in a test tube. The Kurt Crawford that died on one of the Dyson ships… I believe originated from one of your ova, Scully. Those kids, Mulder’s niece and nephew, are your grandchildren.” 

Scully gave Mulder a hard look and he met her gaze with uncertainty. 

“Jeffrey, what would make you test your niece and nephew for my DNA?” Scully fired back with fury in her eyes.

Jeffrey waited a beat thinking maybe Mulder might pipe in. Mulder wasn’t saving him. “According to documents I confiscated out in California, there were children created that were not hybrids.”

Scully raised her eyebrows at that, shifting Maggie to her other hip, while Maggie leaned her head on her chest, a thumb in her mouth and the other hand playing with her cross. “What would be the purpose of human test tube babies so many decades later?”

Jeffrey paced as he spoke avoiding Scully’s glare. “I believe they were running out of the raw material. Ova, and DNA from the original Crawford. Instead of abducting more people, they just created the people they needed to harvest more. With the internet and the ease of spreading information, it’s more difficult to perform tests in the shadows. They decided to create their own raw material from a child with no mother or father. A child that didn’t exist. Made of DNA from their two favorite hosts, Kurt Crawford and Dana Scully.” 

Mulder repeated Jeffrey's theory aloud as if to see how it rolled off his own tongue. “Human children, created in a lab so they could perform further experiments, take their time to create the perfect hybrid. Experiments that were not traceable.”

“So what happened to this child?” Scully was losing her patience. It was all conjecture and speculation. Where were the facts?

“You thought the clone of Samantha searched you out so she could have some semblance of family, but how come she had never come forward before this? What if they didn’t come to your house to meet Mulder, maybe Mulder was only part of the puzzle. What if Kurt wanted to meet his mother?”

“Let me see the DNA results, Jeffrey,” Scully demanded. She practically tore the paper from his hands. The nerve of him collecting her DNA and testing it without even a discussion. Now that he had full access to his father’s files, she wondered if she’d have any privacy left at all. Jeffrey wasn’t lying though. Kurt shared her DNA enough to confirm that they had used her ovum. Mulder’s niece and nephew shared her DNA as well as Mulder’s. 

“You did this without my permission Jeffrey. You stole just as your father did.”

“Dana, I’m looking to adopt these children. I have a right to know where they came from, who they are.”

“You’re wrong. You had  _ no _ right and I would really like it if you left.”

That was enough to make Mulder stand and offer a handshake to Jeffrey. “Give us some time, Jeff. I’ll give you a call.”

Jeffrey went to hold his hand out to Scully, but she held her ground. “Dana, I’m sorry. I thought you would want to know.”

“That’s just it Jeffrey. You presumed, but you didn’t ask and that’s a problem. Now please leave.” Scully stroked Maggie’s head so as to not upset her, but continued to glare at Jeffrey.

With his head hanging low, Jeffrey got in his car and left.

Mulder placed his arm around Scully, squeezing her shoulder. “I didn’t know he was coming over with this,” Mulder said, as Jeffrey’s car faded down the driveway.

“How much of this  _ did _ you know?” Scully asked, knowing Mulder had kept certain things from her in the past.

“This was a shock,” Mulder answered, holding his ground.

Scully let it go, having no reason to challenge him. “Let’s go inside,” Scully snipped, giving Maggie a bounce on her hip.

Scully put Maggie to bed, then headed to the bathroom, mulling over what just happened, scrubbing her face and applying her creams, one for the eye, another for the T-zone. She caught the sight of Mulder through the mirror, deep in his own thoughts. He spoke, not in words, but in the reflection of the man that laid before her eyes. She understood there was something deeply troubling him within his contemplation. A flick of the light switch and she asked, “What is it, Mulder?”

When he didn’t answer, she got into bed and snuggled in besides him, kissing his shoulder. The flecks of gold in his eyes sparkled as he looked over at her. 

Mulder turned to his side and brought her in close. “What do you think about adopting?”

The question caught Scully by surprise. At first she thought he might mean from an agency, but that look in his eyes told a different story. Her mind had accepted that Jeffrey be the one to raise them. He had the time and after inheriting all of CSM’s money, he had the means. She answered him softly, “Mulder, three more children at our age..”

“M could use some siblings around her age, besides, with Ole Smoky gone, I might have more time on my hands.”

After how supportive he was with Emily, how could she possibly not give it serious consideration. Why hadn’t she? They had stolen her children from her. Used her ova to create lab rats. This was a chance to take three of them back. To give the love to them that she so desperately wanted to give to Emily. “What would we say to Jeffrey?”

“They are our flesh and blood. They are a living piece of Samantha. Who is he to stand in our way?” Mulder paused to send a kiss to her forehead. “He told me he hasn’t even discussed it with his girlfriend yet. That says to me he may not have made up his mind completely.” 

Scully nuzzled underneath his chin, pulling her arms in against his chest. “This will be a hard road for us Mulder, but they are ours, no matter how they came to be.”

“And the news today, of William and Molly. You believe William is ready for that responsibility?” Mulder spoke solemnly as his hand trailed to her waist. 

“He has the heart,” Scully said. “And the capability.”

“And he has us,” Mulder added, sending a kiss to her cheek and another to her lips.


	4. Teach Someone to Fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five years ago today, on 6/16/15, I started writing Rooted in Friendship, and I'm still at it. Thank you all for being a part of it. 
> 
> Writing current events is a slippery slope. Everything keeps changing and happening so fast, there's always more to write and add. At the end of this chapter we'll begin the X-Files case. First, we fish.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50012485482/in/dateposted/)

The house was silent when Mulder woke, the sun hovering just below the horizon. As he closed his eyes he felt the heady pull of his dreams beckoning him back to play. Nestling Scully in his arms didn’t help matters. A few more minutes he thought to himself, and drifted again.

A couple hours later, twisting from a dream, Scully woke. The shadows in the room were heavy, leading her to believe it was early morning. She lifted her arm to pull down the covers and instead found an arm curved around her and Mulder breathing evenly and softly against her neck, his body tucked in all along her back. The comfort of the contact outweighed her need to get up and instead she stroked the warm strong arm across her middle as she shifted to study Mulder’s face. She felt his chest vibrate, Mulder’s lashes shifted against her cheeks, then fluttered. Finally, feeling as though she was holding her breath as not to wake him, Scully saw the first appearance of his sea-hazel irises. The pupils retracted a little, and his strong jaw worked side to side for a moment.

“Something wrong?” Mulder asked. His voice, low and rumbling from sleepiness, flowed over Scully’s senses like a soothing touch- Mulder’s soothing touch.

“No, I just woke myself up.” Scully continued to stroke Mulder’s arm, snuggling back into their cocoon.

A minute later a bout of nausea sent Scully flying to the bathroom. Mulder followed with concern, straining as though he might be sick himself as he rubbed her back. “You’re sick,” he stated. 

“No,” Scully said, swallowing several times, closing her eyes, waiting for it to pass. “Must have been something I ate.” 

Mulder took one of the paper cups above the sink and filled it with water, handing it to her while he dampened a washcloth and put it against her forehead. 

Scully drank heartily and nodded. “Thank you, Mulder. It passed, really. I’m fine now.”

Mulder’s phone went off and he reluctantly answered it. A text came in telling him his son was at the front door. 

Begrudgingly, he made his way downstairs, flicking the light switch and lazily opening the door. The sun fought valiantly against the unnatural glow of the chandelier, stinging Mulder’s pupils. He closed one eye and squinted the other as he motioned William inside. 

Fresh brewed coffee filled the air as Mulder poured a mug for himself and William. With two hands around the mug, the same way Scully did, William drank. “I’ve been looking for a job,” William said, nonchalantly.

“Between Skinner, Monica, and Doggett, one of them could probably help you. They have good connections, or at least can write you a decent letter of recommendation,” Mulder offered.

William shook his head. “Nah, not this time.”

“You know what you want to do?”

“Haven’t fully decided.”

Mulder’s fingers thrummed against the heat of the coffee coming through his dark ceramic mug. He took note of the bags under William’s eyes and the way he sat, slumped, like his bones were too heavy to carry. “Are you having trouble sleeping?”

The lines on William’s face hung low. “I’m not exactly the poster boy to become the role model dad.”

“Neither am I, William,” Mulder returned, softly.

“How could you say that? You’re an FBI agent, you don’t really drink, you don’t cheat on my mother, you’re here for us..” 

“And I don’t play by the book,” Mulder finished.

William shook his head. “Whatever you do is justified.”

Mulder’s eyes narrowed and his brow pulled down in concentration. “William, there were times I put both your mother and myself at unnecessary risk. I’ve made my share of mistakes.” 

Mulder softly placed his hand on the back of William’s neck to give it a squeeze and pull him towards him into a hug. “William, you were under the influence of an alien being. The day I was abducted, I felt the pull of the ship, the influence they can have on the way you think. My decision to step inside was not exactly one of volition. You told me yourself that the black oil was persuading your mind.”

“Yes, but it didn’t have control of my body,” William said, his head drooping towards the table.

“Mind control or even influence can be a very powerful thing. I had a man get inside my brain. He was called Pusher because of the way he could push a message into your mind to make you do as he wished. I almost shot your mother because of it.” Mulder’s jaw rocked thinking about the experience, grateful once again that both Pushers were dead. “I would have never forgiven myself if I pulled that trigger. It would have been my undoing, at the same time, I was not in control.” 

“You don’t get it. It’s not one incident. The first time I was responsible for someone’s death, I was sick to my stomach for days, couldn’t eat for a week. What if I’m numb to it now? I can’t go back and just pretend I’m innocent.”

“No. All you can do is move forward and decide what man you want to be.”

“What if I can’t be who I want to be. What if I am something else?”

Mulder patted him on the back. “William. You have to make your own choices and you have to hold yourself accountable for your actions. You have the power to influence and create change. That is not something to ignore and bury. Your decisions will carry more weight now, but I trust in you to make the right ones for your own family.” Mulder looked up to see Scully standing at the kitchen divide and gave her a wink. “And your mother and I will always be here for you. We will help you anyway we know how.”

Scully gave them a heartfelt approving smile and sauntered into the kitchen in her light blue sheen robe overlaying her silk nightclothes. She poured herself a cup of coffee. “Your father and I are going to take Maggie and the dog to the pond to go fishing around three. I’m bringing some lunch for a picnic too if you want to come.”

“Sure. I got a couple things to do first, but I’ll be back by then.” William finished his coffee, got up and headed out. “Later,” he called back as the front door closed.

Mulder turned his attention to Scully. “Are you feeling better?”

Scully laughed. “It wasn’t that bad.” Her oceans pinned him with puzzlement. “It’s nothing to be concerned about, Mulder.”

He got up and sifted through the fridge, taking out two eggs and orange juice, diluting the orange juice with some water and handing the glass to Scully. “Get some natural sugar in you. It's more flavored water than orange juice.”

She took it hesitantly and drank while he fixed an egg.

“You haven’t been eating breakfast. It’s only the white with only a bit of yolk for protein. It’s light,” he said, defending his choice before she could offer a rebuttal.

Scully took cautionary bites and sipped on the juice. She exhaled.

“Better?” Mulder asked. 

“Yes,” Scully admitted. She picked at the fluffy white egg with her fork, finally lifting it and pushing it through her lips. She withdrew the empty fork and looked over at Mulder

“It’s a little bland,” he replied to her expression. He pursed his lips and reached for the salt and pepper.

Mulder rested back on the chair and watched her eat, the color returning to her cheeks and with it her aura’s radiant glow. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “You look..” he started, hesitating, than thinking better of it and finishing with “better.”

“Thank you, Mulder,” Scully said as she chewed. “My appetite is returning.”

“You want something else?” Mulder asked, still slightly concerned it might upset her.

She responded with, “Pancakes?”

Mulder chuckled. “Okay. I can do that.”

“With blueberries? and maybe just a tiny dollop of whipped cream?”

Mulder openly laughed. “You got it, Doc.” He reached out and touched Scully’s forearm giving it a squeeze. She returned the sentiment with a heated smile. Mulder let his hand slide over hers, lifting her fingers to his lips, kissing the knuckle before getting up to finish making breakfast. 

“We need to speak with Jeffrey,” Scully said, as Mulder cooked. “We should do it today.” 

Mulder got on the phone with Jeffrey as soon as they finished breakfast. Ten minutes later, dirty dishes laid in the sink, their mugs of coffee laid half full and cold on the table, Maggie was dressed and strapped into the car and they were on their way. 

**The Pond Behind the Unremarkable House - 3pm**

Below the ruffled pond’s surface was a fish: small, barely a dart of silver, yet fast. Without visible effort it moved from plain sight, glimmering in the mid-afternoon sun, into the reeds before Maggie could cry out that she'd seen it. A smile grew on her pale exuberant face as she ran to get the princess rod her daddy had fashioned for her.

William had his eye on a much larger one with scales like the most delicate of armor plating. The fish made its way towards the center of the pond, choosing the more dangerous open area. William moved his hand and the rod moved in the same way as the fish flexed its body, as if he wanted to feel the same motion. As he stood there, feet in the mud, William’s eyes wandered too, taking in the pinkness of the belly and the stillness of the eye. For that string of moments he tried to think like a fish, to immerse himself in the cold spring waters and experience life from an entirely new perspective. It was short lived though, with another flick of his wrist he sent the line out and over, the fish bit and William felt the tug.

“You got it William!” Mulder shouted and Maggie clapped as he reeled it in. 

Three fish in and released back to nature, and Mulder pulled his backpack behind him, leaves blowing in the freshwater breeze. The faint smell of wildflowers caressed his nose, as his lean muscle served as a pillow for Scully’s head and his jacket an apt pillow. As he watched his children play, his eyes were as serene as the waters of the pond. Molly was preparing her own rod, but William stopped to offer some help. The two of them walked hand and hand along the grassy shore to look for a spot, with Maggie toddling along. It heated Mulder’s soul to know William was solid at his core and certain he would grow to be trustworthy and kind, caring for his child the way he cared for Molly and Maggie.

Mulder glanced down, captivated by the gentle tranquility of Scully at rest. He surmised from her features, the tension from the morning’s nausea had subsided. 

That indefinable warmth in his chest that only Scully produced was back and it grew at the realization she was using his body and his clothes for her sanctuary. Her beauty and his love for her drew his fingers to her forehead. Delicately he caressed her, brushing a scant auburn lock in the process. He lifted his hand, balling it into a fist to prevent him from continuing, not wanting to wake her and allowing his heart rate to return to normal. 

Lashes fluttered, and her body twisted and stretched beneath his jacket, strumming at his abs, begging his body closer. He took a breath to relax his urges and called for William to let him know it was time to go.

“What’s wrong?” Mulder inquired to Scully as he swung open the heavy gate to their property when they returned from fishing. He checked to see that William and Molly were far enough behind to be out of earshot; watching as William swept Maggie high up on his broad shoulders, the wind whipping her hair into a frenzied mess as she leaned over his head. 

“Nothing,” Scully replied, “I’m happy.”

He couldn’t help but feel the trouble within her aura as she walked with a lesser gait. “There’s something,” he pressed on.

Scully gave him a half-shrug exhibiting that feminine side of her that only existed when her vulnerability shone through. “I thought Jeffrey might put up more of a fight.” 

“He knew legally he had no grounds,” Mulder said, matching his stride with hers. “He’ll still be in their lives. He is their uncle. Are you having second thoughts about adopting them?” Mulder took her hand in his as he asked her the question.

“No, of course not,” Scully said in an airy breath. She almost opened up to him and told him about the silent breakdown she had in the bathroom when they left. To see Mulder and her features in those children, for them to accept them as part of their family so eagerly and lovingly. Her heart unimaginably expanded to see all three interact with Maggie. Even thinking about it now was getting her emotional. She felt herself in them and felt that they found themselves inside her. The grief of losing that part of her was something she never properly mourned, partly because it was all so unclear what had really happened to her with her abduction and partly because there was so much left misunderstood. But that grief was all too real. 

As they reached the steps of the front porch, Scully heard the faint ringing of the house phone and went in to answer. Tara, Bill’s wife, surprised her on the other end. 

“Everything is fine over here. The kids are well, Mulder is healthy,” Scully said as she fielded Tara’s questions.

“Dana, things here are unreal. Bill was contacted and told that someone who was at the barber on the same day he went in for a haircut had the virus and Bill was asked to go under voluntary quarantine.”

“Did he test positive?”

“That’s just it Dana, they didn’t even ask him to take a test. What we found even odder is that he paid cash at the barber and all they had was his first name when he signed in.”

“How did they know he went and what day?” Scully asked. Had the syndicate been spying on him as well?

“They traced his cell phone. Has your phone done an update in the past week?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I haven’t really paid attention,” Scully said, pulling hers from her pocket and seeing the update symbol in the notification bar. 

“Well ours did and with that update, the government installed a tracer app that allows everyone to be tracked and they knew where he was and when.”

“Scully watched Maggie enter the house with William and Molly and start playing with her toys. What world was Maggie growing up in? Did destroying the Syndicate or CSM’s death make any difference at all? 

“So he’s shut up in the house for two weeks?” Scully asked Tara.

“At least. If he starts showing symptoms or has a fever he will be in quarantine until he can go ten days without a fever. Now they want me to get tested. Matthew and his wife are deployed overseas. We’re watching the kids. If I test positive they’re threatening to place the children in foster care. I don’t know what to do and Bill’s ranting is getting us nowhere. Our connections with government officials no longer exist. They’ve either retired or been taken out of office. Please, Dana, if there is anything you can do.”

Mulder had just returned from California. He was not going to be pleased. “Yes, of course. I’ll tell Mulder and we’ll head right over.”


	5. Quarantine Bill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip back to California, this time to meet up with Tara, Bill's wife, about Bill's quarantine even though he shows no symptoms of the virus. As with all my stories, I set it within some truth. This could actually happen if officials chose to enact laws that have already been put in place and apps already created for this use. Also, how fun is it to mess with Bill?
> 
> Mulder is in a good mood in this chapter. Could that possibly be stemming from Bill's unfortunate quarantine?

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50019935313/in/dateposted/)

**San Diego, California**

Mulder stepped off the plane and onto Brown field. “It’s Deja Vu all over again,” Mulder commented, stretching his arms wide. Outside the airport Mulder, Scully, and William met up with Monica and Doggett.

“I don’t understand. The Smoking Man is dead. The World Government has been dismantled. The president vetoed the bill and the senate and the house couldn’t overturn it. So, how is this still going on?” Monica asked the crowd from the back seat of the rented Lincoln Aviator.

“Because Monica, it’s like Mulder said, you squish one ant and they come out of the woodwork. You kill the queen and another one builds a new colony,” Doggett commented.

“As long as there is good, there will always be evil,” Monica reminded herself. “But this was years in the making, decades. Was this part of The Smoking Man’s plans? The Syndicate’s?”

“We don’t know Monica, but right now, it looks like this isn’t some secret organization or shadow government. This is our own government,” Scully said, shifting in her seat. 

Mulder knew, even after all these years and everything they had seen, it was difficult for Scully to believe the government her family and friends worked for, and gave their lives to, would betray them. Her dissonance between the life she lived and what was far from her control thickened the air between them. She knew what his response would be, but instead he held her hand, and she accepted it, her eyes focusing on the road ahead. 

Not wanting to alarm Bill, they were forced to meet Tara at a cafe. It took quite an effort because of Bill’s quarantine, but Tara was able to get someone to agree to watch her grandchild. 

“Someone called us from the Department of Health and identified themselves as a contact tracer,” Tara explained, “We had to hold a video conference with them and show them our house. Prove to them that Bill could stay in the basement with his own private bathroom where we would not have access. Complete isolation. Even our dog and our two cats are not allowed in the basement. He was told if he leaves the basement, he could be detained by the police. How is that voluntary?” Tara’s worried hands began to shake as she clasped and unclasped them as though the touch provided reassurance. “If he becomes sick they’re going to take our grandchild away even though we have legal guardianship over them while Matthew is deployed. I won’t be allowed to even go get groceries. They’ll lock me up for an additional 14 days. How can they do this?”

William, who had been busy texting Molly piped up. “You said something about an update to your phone’s operating system? A tracking app?”

“Oh yes,” Tara said. “It’s been placed in everyone’s phone. They went as far as making us show them through Google all the places we’ve travelled in the past week.”

“All under the guise of protecting our health and national security,” Monica commented. 

“Can I see your phone?” William asked and Tara passed it over to him.

Tara kept talking. “They say it’s voluntary, but if we do not comply a detention order will be granted and enforced by the police. Law enforcement has already been contacted. They know our health status, our address. There is no privacy.”

“You downloaded a public health authority app. That’s how they’re tracing you,” William said, returning the phone back to Tara.

“That’s how they’re tracing us  _ now _ . Once we were quarantined we were told to download the app. Anyone who is close to someone who was positive is instructed to do so to track our every step.”

Scully raised an eyebrow towards Monica and she returned the weary look. This was shaping out to be an ominous trip. 

Mulder had been gone about twenty minutes already, preoccupied with the new laws of social distancing, which he found amusing more than helpful. When he returned, he swooped down and took a unceremoniously large bite out of the mediterranean wrap Scully held in her hands. 

“Guess you haven’t learned anything from the masked patrons,” Scully said, wiping the light ranch dressing now dripping from his chin. 

“I learned the majority of the people here believe the United States has moved from a republic to Marxism,” Mulder said between chews. “And between socio-economic and racial divides, there’s the sour smell of the undercurrent of civil war.”

“Is that what you smell? And I thought it was from the rabbit food they're serving,” Doggett returned, finishing the last of his burger and already eyeing his fries. 

Monica sucked down her smoothie through her stainless steel reusable straw and busily typed into her phone. Scully could see from the header she was conversing with Alika, her boss(X’s daughter and head of the CIA). She leaned over to show Scully what Alika had responded. Evidently one hundred billion dollars of the U.S. budget had been allocated to trace and quarantine individuals with the Spartan Virus. Monica forwarded the message to Mulder with the breakdown of the budget allocation while Tara looked nervously from one to another like she might shatter under a strong gust of wind. 

Mulder tipped his glass of tea towards Monica before using it to wash the half of the wrap he stole from Scully and read through it. “What do you make of it?” Monica asked, motioning for the check with her government American Express card.

Mulder stared back at her and curled his lip smugly. “I think the monsters have risen out from under our beds while we blissfully slumbered, took away what was left of our privacy, and with it our rights.” 

*

Back at the motel while Scully was in the shower, William laid on the bed with his knees bent and his laptop resting on his thighs. “Dad, have you heard the conspiracy theories around 5G?”

Mulder scratched his head. “I’ve heard everything from it is hazardous to your health and gives everyone cancer, to it caused the Spartan virus.”

“Kyle, Molly’s brother, started his own channel tracking this stuff. Dad, look at these heat maps of the virus outbreak. If you overlay that map with the signals admitted from the 5G sites, it sure seems like there is a connection.”

“You have to be careful, William. It’s interesting, but it’s not proof. It also may be a smokescreen for something entirely different.” He paused, then looked straight into William’s brilliant blue visionary eyes and caught a glimpse of his mother in the shine.

“It would be the ultimate in biowarfare,” Mulder acknowledged, then got momentarily philosophical. “In the past they used drinking water and the skies to transmit their viruses. But to be able to transmit disease through invisible waves- then The Tower of Babel would not be built of brick and mortar, but lattice steel.” 

The soft aromas of honey, lilacs, and vanilla entered the room just before Scully, as she dried her hair with a towel, the heavy cotton hotel robe adorning her body. 

“You should answer your phone,” Mulder remarked, “your purse has been shaking like you stole a vibrator.”

Scully looked at William then back at Mulder, scolding him with her eyes. She reached into her bag and glanced at her text messages. The names of the required vaccines flashed across her screen. “The vaccine that the government requested they receive is not mine,” Scully mused.

“Generic?” Mulder asked.

“It’s a government issue. I’d like to send it to the lab before Tara and the kids get vaccinated,” Scully said, raising her right eyebrow.

“How do we get our hands on it?” Mulder returned.

“We’re not breaking in anywhere, Mulder,” she said, tossing her phone haphazardly back into her purse and looking over her shoulder with a wry smile. “I know a guy who knows a guy.”

**FBI Headquarters, Monday, 9:11a.m.**

Skinner rocked back on his chair, his arms crossed on his wide chest, and looked from Mulder to Scully, then back to Mulder. His glasses glinted as he did. The reflection of the sunlight bounced off each window in his office to find his reading specs. He tilted his head. “You need me to call my friend in the CDC. I’ll get out my sling because when you two are involved I know my ass will be in it soon.”

“Thank you, Walter,” Scully said, ignoring this former comment.

“Tell me, what do you hope to find?” Skinner asked. “Because to me it sounds like you’re a little wet fingered.”

“I think whether or not Scully is into ass play is between her and I,” Mulder said indignantly, pursing his lips.

“Mulder!” Scully exclaimed.

“Okay, she’s not against it, totally, I mean, until she’s against it..” Mulder corrected.

“Enough Mulder!” Skinner said, raising his voice. “I meant it sounds like you’re just licking your finger and holding it to the wind- you’re guessing, even if it might be educated.”

“Hundreds of Millions will receive this vaccine,” Scully interjected. “It will be a requirement for most jobs. If you refuse to have it administered to your children, they won’t be permitted to attend public schools. The people have a right to know what they are putting in their bodies.” 

Skinner laid both his hands flat on his desk. “I’ll make no promises. We have rules and regulations to abide by.”

Scully sensed that was the end to the conversation and her and Mulder both got up to leave. As Mulder held the door for her his hand settled at the small of her back and he whispered dryly, ”Bet you  _ he’s _ into ass play.”


	6. Dial'Afreaq

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50041893943/in/dateposted/)

**Gibson’s School for the Extraordinarily Gifted**

Gibson listened as the boys rambled on, his brain beginning to throb from the echo of voices and thoughts. “Use your inside voices,” Gibson reminded them. 

They stopped talking out of respect, but even their thoughts were loud with excitement. Override had four monitors, each with different information flashing across the screens. He had brought in two more homemade computers with another box of parts lying in a corner. They were claiming there was a connection between the erection of the cell towers and the virus, but Gibson thought that they should reconsider. The 5G signal did not travel far distances. The amount of towers they would need didn’t add up and he knew from what Mulder told him concerning how the virus had started and spread it was not from radio frequency radiation. It caused cancer and damaged DNA, but did not spark viruses. They were onto _something,_ but not that.

**Farrs Corner, VA**

Miri, Jenna, and Finn sat across from Mulder and Scully on the couch, in Mulder and Scully’s living room. 

**Mulder**

He took in Finn’s sweaty palms, Jenna picking at her nails, and Miri all glassy eyed and smiling, wanting to know if she was Maggie’s sister yet. He noticed Finn’s hard jaw lines and muscular long thin frame, similar to his own. The way Miri tossed her hair like his sister did or the faces Jenna made or her stoic reactions to Finn’s teasing. He wanted all of that back in his life, a permanent part that he would protect and would not lose again. They reminded him so much of his childhood it made his heart burn and ache for that time when his parents lived under the same roof and he played with his sister without concern for possible harm. 

**Scully**

The conversation felt surreal. They were very much strangers to these children. How it must feel to them staring up at a frightful new world forcing them to look at unknown faces for love that had always readily been given by their parents. What they had endured in such a short period of time. Their mother laid by their father's side under the hard clay in a cemetery plot and all she had discussed with Mulder was the impact these children would have on their own lives. The trauma they had been through, their pain and mourning, all they had now was each other. Caught in the fires of her own suffering, her thoughts were more hurricane than poetry, but now they focused on what was best for the children. Could they raise them keeping their fragile souls intact or would being left behind harden them forever? Would they always feel like trees without roots? Birds fallen from a nest? Was there a chance, with herself and Mulder, to plant a good seed in the rotten wood to nurture and flourish?

**Miri**

At night, she remembered sleeping in her parent's bed like a starfish. Her father would tell her to sleep in her own bed like a big girl, but the next night she would crawl in just the same and they would wrap their arms around her. Now she was an orphan and the best her brother and sister could offer her was their hand and a promise it would get better. Miri didn’t want anything but her parents back, but no matter what star she wished on, her brother said they were gone for good. Sometimes she wondered if it was her fault, triggered by stepping on a crack in the sidewalk, thinking bad thoughts when she was put in time out, but Jenna told her that was silly talk. She had no magical powers for good or evil. Maybe one day Aunt Dana would rub her head like her mom used to when she was scared and tell her bedtime stories, or Uncle Mulder would teach her how to ride a bike like her brother Finn. She had always wanted to be a big sister, and she loved Maggie. 

**Finn**

Finn unwrapped another piece of chewing gum like the one he already had in his mouth and packed it in under his lip. Chewing always cleared his mind and allowed fresh thoughts to enter. He glanced over at Miri as Aunt Dana spoke and explained their intentions. Miri held tight to her favorite doll Santa had given her for Christmas. Aunt Dana and Uncle Mulder were nice enough and seemed like they truly cared. They must. A lot of times they looked like they were going to cry if a strong wind came. Aunt Dana checked up on him when he got a scrape on his knee, and cared for Jenna’s tummy ache. And when he asked Uncle Mulder if he could see his collection of boxscores from the baseball games he went to with his dad, the smile on his face looked so wide it might hurt. Miri wanted so badly to find new parents to love, but he feared that one day his younger sisters might have no recollections of what it had been like to be with their Mom and Dad. Even forget what they looked like. Or perhaps if they can always remember the hugs, being scooped off their feet the minute their lower lip trembled, it’ll be too painful. 

Finn wanted to cry, he wanted to keep their house, even his mother's dumb precious moment's collection, but there was no room for sentimentality in his life; only tough guys survived. At least that’s what his best friend Bobby’s older brother told him and Bobby when Bobby’s parents divorced. And death was much much worse. Finn had worked his way up from sleeping in tear stained sheets to simply trembling in the night. He had to be strong for his sisters, but did he know how? Was Aunt Dana and Uncle Mulder the right decision?

**Jenna**

Jen wished she knew what Finn and Miri were thinking. She hated this. She hated being uncomfortable and out of place everywhere. She hated change. She wanted to be with her friends and not out in the middle of nowhere and Aunt Dana and Uncle Mulder were so old. How much longer before they lost them too? 

“You really need to know…” Scully said, wrapping up their conversation, “Your Uncle Jeff loves you all very much, but you need to be the ones to make the decision. There is no wrong answer and you will be in both our lives, it’s all a matter of where you are most comfortable.”

“Will we ever see our friends again?” Jenna asked.

Finn chimed in. “Will we go to different schools now?”

“We’ll take you by to see your friends whenever you need,” Mulder said. “We’re in a different school district so you’ll most likely have to change schools. There’s not much we can do to avoid that no matter where you go.”

Finn thought a minute. “Can I have my own room?”

Mulder laughed. “Of course you can, and you can fix it up however you like.”

“Can me and Maggie share a room?” Miri piped up.

“If that’s what you two want,” Scully answered, giving Mulder a positive shrug. “Jenna, what do you want?”

“I want my friends! I want my mom!” Jenna ran from the couch to the porch with tears streaming from her face.

Scully got up and delicately clicked open the screen door to find Jenna on the front porch, her head in her hands, tears dripping between her fingers. She softly sat down next to her. “I hated moving when I was young too. My dad was in the Navy and just as I made friends it was time to leave. After a while it felt like it wasn’t even worth caring about people if all they were going to do was leave one way or another, but I was wrong. See, all those places I was at, I made new friends and then, after a while, I had more friends than anyone.”

“Really?” Jenna asked, tentatively peeking her head up for the first time.

“If you want to visit your friends, all you have to do is talk to us.”

Jenna let out a sniffly, “Okay.”

“I know it feels like you’re alone right now, but now is when we have to stick together,” Scully added.

Jenna’s face crumpled up again the way Scully had seen Mulder’s do at times. “I am alone. Mommy and Daddy are not coming back!” Instead of running away this time she clung to Scully, wrapping her arms around her, her face burying in her chest. 

Scully stroked her hair. “Jenna, you’re not alone, you have your brother and sister. You have us and Jeffrey, we are not going anywhere.”

“Finn said we’re orphans,” Jenna said in more muffled cries.

“So am I,” Scully returned. “So is Mulder.”

Jenna sniffled, but ceased her wails. “You are?”

“Yes. My Dad died a long time ago and my Mom a few years back. Uncle Mulder’s parents died many many years ago. We are in this together.”

Jenna curled into Scully’s lap and Scully said, “We want you to live with us. We can take it as slow as you need.”

“Can I watch Disney movies and Zoom my friends?” Jenna asked with her face finally starting to lift into a grin.

“Absolutely,” Scully returned with a squeeze and Jenna hugged her back. “Love you, Aunt Dana.”

“How about you go tell Uncle Mulder what you decided?”

“Okay!” Jenna exclaimed, running into the house, and up to Mulder sitting at the chair facing Finn and Miri who were making lists of all their toys. Scully followed her, Stopping short to watch Mulder melt like ice in the sun when Jenna whispered in his ear, “I want to stay with you.”

*

Mulder came out on the porch, giving Maggie a smile and hugged her as she clung to his leg and waved goodbye to the kids. Jeffrey closed the property gate and drove the children back to his house. “Jenna looks and acts so much like my sister,” Mulder said.

“From what I’ve seen, the home movies, the pictures, she does bear a stark resemblance.”

“Miri looks like you and your sister,” Mulder said with his head down, leaning on the back of the chair. “You think they’ll change their minds after they have a couple nights to think about it?”

Scully saw his bloodshot eyes as he squinted at her. His lip tightened, but didn’t quite pull. “I don’t know,” she said softly. “They’re children. It’s poss..i..ble.” As she trailed off, Mulder’s face hardened. Oh, no. She had seen that look in his eyes too many times. “Mulder, I know this must be incredibly difficult for you, but this can’t be about your sister.”

That hit hard and it stung. Mulder knew Scully had pulled him from the edge time and again, but when did his time in purgatory end. “Let it go, Scully,” he warned, clenching his jaw.

“Don’t make these children your salvation for Samantha,” Scully pleaded with tumultuous eyes. 

Mulder took a step towards her, opening his mouth to speak, turned and went inside the house, slamming the screen door behind him.

Scully rushed in with Maggie in tow. “Where are you going?” she demanded as he scraped the car keys from the dish and passed her in the foyer.

“I’m trying to get away from you.”

He could hear Maggie’s wail as the dust flew from the porch steps, a lump formed in his throat and his heart pulled, but he needed time to be alone. 

**FBI Headquarters**

Sitting at her desk, a yellow Post-It caught Scully’s eye. Three quarters of the way down her cork board, underneath an interoffice memo reminding her of the day the Bureau would be celebrating July birthdays, a little flint of yellow. It had Skinner’s familiar jagged scroll across it. She reached behind the letter, and felt a small bag attached by clear tape. Carefully removing it so as not to damage the contents, Scully peered inside to find a tiny vial filled with a liquid and a printout from the lab with the ingredients list of everything in the vaccine. Skinner had come through. Immediately, she placed it in her pocket and reached for her cell.

“Mulder, I got the results back,” she said into the receiver.

“And?”

“The vaccine doesn’t have anything unusual except for a small _microscopic chip_.”

“What? You’re kidding.”

“No and I have one in a vial now. Do you think they’re cataloging people again?”

“Meet me at Jeffrey’s. The same man that modified your chip will be able to tell us what it’s used for.”

*

It didn’t take long for the 5G conspiracy theory to start spreading online. Only one post from Kyle to his channel and mayhem took to the cities. Videos of handwritten signs and graffiti on trees, buildings, and subway walls. Masked rioters and protesters flooded the streets. The internet filled with podcasts requesting interviews with state and local officials on the matter. People scrambled to towns, anyplace cell towers couldn’t reach. They drove out past where sidewalks turned to grass and roads of asphalt turned to gravel. As soon as posts were put up, they mysteriously disappeared. The countering criticism came in droves, debunking it all as foolish notions, but there were some that believed. 

**One Day Later, Farrs Corner, VA**

“So you’re telling me, they’re going to inject everyone with this nanobot and what? Mind control?” Doggett asked. 

“I think it’s more than that, much more,” Mulder answered. “Yes, control, but also GPS tracking on everyone. They’ll have the ability to turn off your life as quickly as a light switch. Have you gathered at their choosing. Control your desires, moods. You’re no longer human, but tools.”

“And how do you suppose they’re going to signal all 8 billion of us?” Doggett asked.

“Through your cell phone,” William chimed in. “5G towers took care of that. They needed the capability, the capacity for handling the amount of bandwidth and speed required for that large an undertaking.”

Mulder beamed at his son.

“How would we fight something like that?” Monica asked. 

“We have to find a way to block the signal,” William said. “But first we must go to the strongest source.”

“And where is that?” Scully asked.

“We don’t know exactly,” William said, “but Gibson, Kyle, and I can feel it. Molly too.”

Mulder nodded. “I guess it’s settled then. Today we load up with gear and supplies. Tomorrow we head out.” 

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50042707117/in/photostream/)

Scully could hear the spray of the shower as she stepped into the bathroom. “I hope you looked over what I packed for you,” she called out to Mulder. 

A hard scrape of shower rings against the rod and Mulder turned to her, rinsing the suds from his eyes as his fingertips massaged his thick full dark hair that hadn’t quite lost its fight against the grays. “I trust you,” he said.

“You think we’re doing the right thing allowing William and his friends to come along?”

“Scully, they have proven that they all can protect themselves far more than we can.” She watched him without regard finish sudsing his body, then rinse off the soft white clouds. He stepped out onto the bathmat, and dried himself off with a white towel, wrapping it around his waist and tucking it in at his hip. The scent of cedar wood filled the muggy air suffocating her senses as his hands surrounded her hips. “We’ll be careful and we’ll keep an eye on them. Think of it as bonding time.”

Scully rolled her eyes and passed him a weak smile. It was hard to resist him when he flashed her his tender disarming grin. Mulder left her to cover his face with shaving cream and glided the blade of his razor purposefully across it. He clinked his razor against the bathroom sink, clearing it of his facial hair. 

“You know,” he said, holding their gaze long enough for her blues to get lost in his sage meadows, letting her know the tension between them had been replaced with a new one. “It’s not that late.”

He left her eyes and pursed his lips to the left so his skin on his right cheek grew taut. Gliding the razor through his lathered chiseled cheekbones left his tanned skin baby soft. It was a sexy move and he knew it. She opened her mouth to protest, to tell him that they have an army of kids downstairs when his lips grazed her own. He kissed her deeper, but just as soft, and she slung her arms over his shoulders, rising to her toes, getting shaving cream all over her cheeks. For a brief moment she was lost in his kiss, like it was the only one that had ever mattered. Then he pulled away.

Her jaw clenched, her chest rising and falling with each hard breath. 

“You’re right, this might not be the best time,” he said, reading her mind. He let his towel fall onto the tile floor as he left her there to stand and watch his sculpted ass rising and falling as he walked to the bed. 

“We’ll read,” he suggested, reaching for the book on the nightstand, tucking himself under the bed sheet. To show he had serious intent he opened the book and started reciting, “And I know I am deathless, I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter’s compass, I know I shall not pass like a child’s carlacue, cut with a burnt stick at night…”

Scully exhaled, the words an elixir in his husky rasp. “Walt Whitman.”

“Your intelligence is like sexual napalm to me,” Mulder said, his eyes full of both love and lust. 

Scully smiled, undressing as she shut the light and made her way to the bed.


	7. Road Trip

**Virginia - Detour, Northbound**

A quick glance in her rearview mirror and Scully breathed a sigh of relief. William and his friends had been able to follow them even through the heavy traffic. The traffic light they were stopped at swayed in a gust of wind, haphazardly hanging, the bottom scorched from a car explosion set by the rioters before curfew. Now all that remained were townspeople and prisoners, guarded by law enforcement to clean up the mess. The light turned green and Scully powered on in yet another rented Lincoln Aviator, a little heavier than Mulder cared for on the gas. 

“Are we making a stop to plan the family summer vacation, Scully? Virginia is for Lovers, perhaps a trip to Disney may be more appropriate,” Mulder quipped, as they passed the mile marker for Virginia beach.

Scully gave him a side-eye. “We’re stopping at the field office in Chesapeake.”

“We have a field office with this kind of view this close to the beach? How come no one told me about this before?”

“Because we have a hard enough time keeping pants on you as it is, Mulder,” Doggett remarked. “You throw in a little white sand and some waves, it’ll be game over.” 

“I’m sure I could have found a nice comfy basement to settle in," Mulder returned. "Why are we here, Scully?”

The SUV bounced over the bump as Scully swiped the ticket and they entered the parking garage. A couple circles and they were on the second floor and Mulder now understood the reason for the silence. “Miller and Einstein? What do we need them for?”

“Skinner suggested it would be appropriate to have more agents on the case given its scale and because we brought along civilians. I happen to agree,” Scully said, lifting her chin, showing off her bold cheek bones.

“You’re the boss,” Mulder grumbled. 

Agent Einstein and Agent Miller said their hellos, Einstein passing Mulder a look of partial disgust before climbing into the third row. A few hours and some incessant banter later, they stopped at a road sign to get their bearing. Not wanting to use GPS for fear of tracking, Mulder whipped out his trusty maps from days of yore. Once again, Einstein folded her arms impatiently causing Miller to apologize to Scully for his partner’s mood. 

Mulder finally found a clear route relying on William and his friend’s feedback. Doggett took a turn at the wheel and they followed Mulder’s direction until nightfall. 

Up ahead, a tent a little ways off caught William’s eye. He called Doggett and instructed him to turn the headlights on to illuminate the faces of the people as they pulled over. A man got up from his lawn chair, the blanket wrapped around him slithering to the floor. He raised his hands in surrender, six others with him did the same. William recognized them almost immediately. He had this vision two night’s prior in the motel. 

“You need help?” Doggett called out. “What you doing out here?”

“You stop blinding me with your high beams and I’ll tell you,” the man yelled back.

Doggett gave a glance at Mulder who nodded and Doggett cut the lights and the ignition. He reverted to their flashlights when they approached on foot. William noticed Doggett unsnap the safety on his holster. 

“We’re heading away from the signals. Same as you should be doing,” the man returned. 

“It will only affect you if you’ve received the vaccine,” Scully tried to explain.

“That’s what you say. I say once the programming is complete, they won’t need no implants, no cell phones. The signals will be enough to interrupt the electromagnetic current in your brain. This wasn’t something some hacker did in a garage. See I’ve got friends who work in the state government in Massachusetts, who are professors at MIT. People who work for Bill Gates. I’m not just some loon talking out his ass.”

“You know about this because you’ve already been spoken to…. Through telepathy,” Gibson said, reading the man’s mind.

“Yes. I know what’s been done, and we've tried to fight against it, but who are we fighting? There is no one man to stop. Everyone you talk to is only part of the government machine,” another one piped in.

“And we’re going to listen to these guys just because he says it’s true?” Doggett argued.

“Listen honey,” said one of the women pointing at Doggett. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about you. You don’t see what’s going on? Go on ahead a couple miles and maybe you’ll get the picture. They’re at the house on the left.”

Mulder thanked them for their time and pushed onward. On the left hand side of the road, just as the woman had mentioned, an unbelievable sight came into focus. At first it looked like a scarecrow, but on further account he knew it was a man. Dried blood congealed over his shirt and pants. Emanating from his neck, the glitter of the piece of window pane that remained in his hand. There were three others, a woman and two children. The children strung up in a clothes line, the mother impaling herself with a garden rake and Mulder surmised when that didn’t work, an iron post. 

Scully reached for Mulder’s arm. “Look over there, Mulder. The birds.” 

Around the fields birds lay dead like they were all stuffed dolls. Trees and bushes were brown, not a single leaf even though it was summer. 

“Let’s keep moving,” Monica suggested and they agreed, getting back into their cars and heading further north. 

“Those folks we met, they seem to think if they head to these areas where 5G can’t reach they will be spared,” Einstein stated.

“I think they’re dreaming of a happy ending scenario that’s more wishful thinking than anything else.” Miller said. “How many people will they let live off the grid and trust there not to be a rebellion? They need compliance to be successful.”

“They?” Einstein mocked.

Late in the night they crossed the Jersey border. Into the mountains, Miller told them about his friend’s cabin that was left abandoned most of the year. They were able to force the rudimentary lock and found the pantry fully stocked with camping edibles including freeze dried meals, oatmeal, dried fruits, canned vegetables, and the like. There was an old cook stove and a hand pump in the kitchen that reminded Scully of her grandparents' original house. With a good meal in their bellies, they quickly found themselves drowsily heading for their beds.

“Kyle, Gibson, do you hear that?” William asked in the dark.

“Yes,” Gibson answered. “I hear a voice. It’s saying, **_follow your chosen path, avoid the murderous wrath_ **.”

“Yeah, WTF,” Kyle commented.

“Maybe the signals are being modified?” Override offered. “What if the signals evolve over time? Possibly learning and upgrading to keep from forming errors in the code.”

“Like we’re now listening to version 2.0?” William asked.

Unable to sleep, Scully decided to find Mulder. She softly padded past Monica and Doggett sleeping heavily in the next bed. The light was off in the room adjacent where Einstein slept alone. Slowly, Scully crept down to the first floor, past the boy’s room filled with the sounds of snores and a blasting television, and out the back door into the chilly night. 

Outside, she followed the harsh clunks of iron against log, to find Mulder wielding an ax, his forearms tensing and flexing as the striated muscles worked. She watched admiringly as each log split into several smaller edges. She had seen him perform the task at their house during winter months, but she never grew tired of being the voyeur. 

“Making firewood for the stove?”

“The temps are going to fall below 60 tonight. Thought we might need a little heat,” Mulder said, slightly out of breath.

“Why didn’t you get William to help you?” Scully asked, biting her lip as he wiped the sweat off his brow. 

He leaned the ax against the pile to remove his hoodie. The jacket zipper descended, whizzing along its downward trajectory; falling away to reveal a tight white Henley hugging his cut torso. “I came out here to think,” he said.

“Did it work?” She asked with a smile.

He smiled back. “Slightly.” His eyes passed over her like a scanner and suddenly she felt naked underneath the newest shirt of his that she had claimed as her own. 

Mulder’s features dropped and several wrinkles appeared above his brow. “It was supposed to end with my father. I wake up at night and I can still see his brains splattering, smell the fresh blood, hear the pop. Tonight, in my dreams, little pieces of cerebral matter grew legs and scattered into the dark shadows of a plane. Too many to count, I tried to scramble, to pick them up, to squish them with my feet. That laugh, his laugh, echoed back at me.”

Scully drew a breath. “What is your theory concerning this supposed mind control?”

“I think this is an evolution. They start with the controlling of our neurons, tap into the frequency. First with microchips, so they map our progress, then in later versions, without. They won’t need viruses, biowarfare. They will enslave us with our own technology. S.R. 819, Supersoldiers, it was only the roots of the nanotech. What it has grown into now… and who or what has started it.. Eventually the government is always involved.” Mulder read her with his eyes then sent his hands to his hips. “Why did you insist on having Rick and Morty along with us?”

“Miller and Einstein have their purpose,” Scully answered, crossing her arms.

Mulder looked towards the darkened house. “To remind us how much better we were at that age?”

“To give us fresh perspectives,” she corrected.

Mulder nodded, sarcastically. “What happened to the two of us, solving these cases on our own? Now we need a school bus and half of Congress.” 

Scully arched a silky brow. “Now that you said that, do you feel better?”

Mulder shrugged and her brow went higher. His gaze anchored to the lock of hair dangling over her face. He reached out before she could stop him and tucked it behind her ear. The gentleness of his touch in their heated exchange caught her off guard. Her eyes went soft and her tongue traced her bottom lip as she took in his dark tousled hair and felt her hand twitch imagining raking passionate fingers through it. 

“We’ve worked with backup before,” Scully proposed and scooted up onto the wood pile, her bare legs dangling, unable to reach the ground.

“That was local law enforcement,” Mulder replied, brushing the prospect away, but inching a step closer. Close enough for them to almost touch.

“And HRT, and SWAT,” she reminded him. Scully’s eyes roamed his chest and the sharp curves of each muscle before joining his again. “Remember Chattanooga?”

Mulder tilted his head. “Melissa?”

Scully nodded. “That night.”

The left side of his mouth raised upwards. “I remember being upset, convinced I was trapped in a cycle of eternal torment, my soulmate just out of reach, taking you all with me, through endless lives, all with tragic endings.”

Her tone went hard. “And what did I tell you?”

Mulder rolled his tongue around the inside of his mouth as he pursed his lips. “That the Smoking Man couldn’t be a Nazi in a past life if he was already alive in this one.”

“And?” Taking on a life of their own, her eyes roamed down past his torso.

“And the names of the street signs, and… ” a flicker of love sparked in his eyes. “And that we were alive in this life. Together.”

He took one more step closer and his fingers danced along her knee. A shiver raced up her leg as inch by inch he bared her to the cool night air and to his warm searching hand. Sharp current flowed from his fingers and to her core. When his palm settled over the bare skin, just below her ass, she let out a small moan in her breath. She looked him in the eye. “And I would travel through this life and the next with you.”

The past flared up in his eyes. “You grounded me like always. You _are_ my touchstone.”

“We had a moment. On your motel bed.”

“Y-yes we did. I came very close to kissing you that night.”

“I wanted you to..”

Mulder’s hazy emeralds slid to take a nice long tour over her chest. Scully could feel her nipples tighten over his perusal and she swallowed hard, gripping the wood pile. “But if we did..” Mulder contemplated.

“I wouldn’t have stopped it with a kiss,” Scully answered boldly.

“No?” His breath hitched and lust flared in his eyes, turning them a forest green. With one hand leaning on the wood pile, the other tiptoed behind the cotton between her thighs.

“How could I?” she said, a low moan escaping as his fingers gracefully spread her legs enough to tease her folds.

“But then we might not have what we have now,” he remarked, locking his eyes onto her lips. 

“We might not.” Scully slowed as she spoke. The intensity of his gaze and the soft rubbing of his fingers around her clit had built up sensations that had started to crest.

Her chest pressed firmly against his abdomen and she melted into him as he cradled her in his arms.“And I wouldn’t give up _this_ for anything.”

He pulled her hips into his, his rock hard groin confirming what she already knew. Nuzzling her neck she let out a soft moan as she closed her eyes and he removed her underwear. “Wouldn’t change a thing.”

Mulder whispered in the shell of Scully's ear through his soft plump lips, “Turn around.”

“What are we doing?” she asked, already knowing, complying, but at the same time peaked with curiosity.

“Wider,” he growled as he nudged her leg and she widened her stance. 

“Scully,” he whispered in an urgent plea, “I want you to reach down and touch yourself.”

“Mulder.”

“Just do it.”

So Scully sent her hand down between her legs to feel herself already dripping onto her abductor muscle.

“You feel how wet I get you?” Mulder said, oozing charisma and sensuality. “You feel how badly you want this? Want me?”

Scully swallowed hard, the hairs on her neck standing on end. She ached for him to cover more than her back. “Yes.”

“Remember that next time you’re piling agents into a clown car,” he panted out, his voice dark and rugged as he grabbed her hips and lined them up.

She could hear the zipper of his jeans and her clit throbbed in anticipation. He didn’t make her wait, his cock a tight snug fit, jutting her forward against the hard wood and forcing her to cry out.

How could she have known how much she needed this. Needed him cradled inside her walls. Then again, how could she not. 

Mulder didn't move, remaining sheathed inside her. Scully moaned in protest. 

“I'm not going to move until you come at least once for me Scully,” he murmured steamy and seductively.

His fingers brushed her mound, blazing a hot trail down between her folds, teasing her, swelling her lips so he was packed in incredibly tight and insatiably deep. The pressure of his fingers increased as he circled, harder and faster and all Scully could do was cling to the splintered wood in front of her. 

“Call my name, Scully,” Mulder groaned. “I know you want to, you can feel it, rising in your throat.” His hot breath against her neck sent shockwaves through her body. She shuddered and clenched his cock. Fuck, his cock felt so good tucked inside her. God, she needed him to move, but he had her pinned against the wood pile and she couldn’t budge.

Scully whimpered in protest. Her body begged for release of all the pleasure he had been building. His fingers worked their magic as the other knotted in her hair and his lips sucked just below her ear, until she couldn’t hold it any longer and screamed his name into the cold night air. Her insides contracted violently, to the point she thought she may never recover, but he remained rigid. Massaging and squeezing her breast, taunting her clit. The pulsing intense, around his unyielding cock, frightful of how much more she could take.

“Mulder, please, Mulder please move,” she struggled out between short gasps.

“Louder, Scully,” he commanded, his eyelashes brushing her temple. She could hear the strain in his voice. Her insides spasmed again and she lost control.

“Mulder, please, God, fuck me,” she belted out and he moved. Fast and hard, his body lighting up hers like flood lights on a high school football field on friday night, like the sun during a solar flare.

Her lungs burned, unable to compete with his speed. Her eyes rolled back and she held his hand tight against the firewood, tearing at the hair at the base of his neck with the nails of her other hand. The sounds she was making turning to incoherent babble, sobbing his name, shouting to the heavens how much she loved him as he made her come so hard she didn't know what was pounding harder, their hearts or his cock against the quivering walls milking it.

Abruptly, he pulled out, spun her around, kissing her hard. Mulder’s earthly and intoxicatingly masculine flavor coated her tongue as he covered her mouth with a deep sensuous kiss. He explored and she followed his every stroke. In spite of the cold night, the air around them sizzled. She settled against him and his fingers pulled at her blouse, tugging it upward as her hand dipped to cover his cock, and his breath quickened. Lovingly, she stroked the generous flesh and it throbbed and grew thicker. Mulder moaned, brushing fingers across her jaw, sending a hand swiping across her clit to enter an index inside her. He angled his head and his kiss grew more intense and so did her trembling strokes. His tongue, brushing and caressing as his fingers did to her walls. 

His hand dropped to her bare breast and cupped it, kneading and massaging, following the tempo of his finger inside her, until she bit down into his shoulder and nearly sobbed with need. 

He found her earlobe with his teeth and tugged before lowering himself to capture a taut nipple with his mouth. Scully arched into him, a small sensual cry sounding out into the darkness. When his teeth tugged at her peaked flesh, she groaned loud. He released it and she felt a void, a loneliness until he did the same with the other.

Stroking him faster, he throbbed harder into her hand. He looked up to send a wanton gaze, piercing her heart and sending lightning to her core. She raised his mouth to hers and he captured it, pulling his fingers free, lifting her from the woodpile and together they sank to the ground. With shaky fingers she reached for their clothes to act as a barrier against the cold temp of the grass. 

Scully ran her palms over the hard planes of his chest. She couldn’t recall when their remaining clothing came off nor did she care. Mulder laced one set of fingers through hers and pulled them towards his heart in a hug as he entered her. Crying out, she buried her face in his shoulder. The ecstasy of him filling her so completely never wavering.

“Scully,” he grunted as he pumped, “not that I mind, but you’re biting me.”

Oh God, she was. Scully released his shoulder from between her teeth and kissed the same spot, running her tongue over the teeth marks.

“Sorry,” she murmured against his sinewy neck.

“Don’t even think that.” His voice held a smile and Scully pulled him deeper inside her.

His strokes were as urgent and fast as her own hips that lifted continuously off the cold ground. Mulder found their rhythm- slow, sweet, that bespoke their pure, tender, hard earned emotion. One that only years of love could inspire. Mulder bled his heart out with his body’s dance, his touch, with every arch of his brow and stroke of his tongue with each kiss. With every movement, their bodies, their soul, their hearts were mingled and entwined into one. There was no beginning and no end to them anymore. It was just them. Bound together.

Scully peaked so hard into bliss that her entire body shuddered and a few thrusts later, Mulder soon found his own release, calling her name as he did.

They lay there on the ground, the sounds of night filtering through the trees. When their breaths returned and the slight dizzy spell receded, Scully caressed down Mulder’s rib cage, over his hips, gently massaging as she went. She traced a circular pattern over his spine and down to his ass. His cock swelled slightly inside her and her body reacted in a pulse of pleasure. Mulder moaned. “You know the effect your touch has on me.”

A smile spread across Scully’s lips and she nibbled sweet kisses over his shoulders and neck to his ear. His breathing grew ragged and his cock throbbed at half mast trying to spring back to life, still firmly cradled inside her. “Enough for the two of us to be out here in the dead of night under the stars,” she added.

“It’s not just tonight. When we’re alone, with people, sometimes I want you so bad I could take you right there in broad daylight for everyone’s viewing pleasure.”

Scully giggled. “That would be something,” she purred and moved her hips into him gently.

“Scully, easy, it’s really sensitive.” His teeth, jaw, and eyes all clenched as she moved harder against him, and he lifted onto his elbows to hover over her. “You’re back is going to kill you in the morning.”

“Small price to pay,” she answered, her voice taunting and seductive.

His eyes glazed over with desire as he stared down at her. “If anyone could do this to me, at my age, you can.” He moved inside her with slow and gentle strokes as his cock began to thicken again.

Her agreeance was coupled with a moan of pleasure as his strokes and cock grew more determined.

“Only you would make me want more.” She stared up at him and her breath caught. He sank so far into her, her insides began to quiver on the brink of another orgasm.

In a movement so smooth and quick she squealed, Mulder had her on top, guiding and moving her hips in a circular motion with one hand while he stroked her clit with the other thumb.

Mulder lifted her up all the way to his tip, then plunged her down on him again. The sexual tension built and curled inside her with every stroke. Close to the brink, Scully threaded her fingers with Mulder’s, clung to them, taking control of the force of her body pounding into his. Mulder called her name, her clit rubbing hard against his hard body, he crunched his abs and suckled one breast, then the other.

Scully came with a desperate cry of his name, which pulled him with her, and she collapsed against his heaving chest. 

As they walked back Mulder kept his arm around her, the other filled with wood for the heater, when they noticed Einstein’s sure fire red in the upstairs window. “You think she saw us?” Scully asked.

“Do you really care?” Mulder fired back.

Once Mulder got the wood stove heating the house, he joined Scully in bed. In sweet silence, she cuddled against his side and he bundled her onto his chest, pulling the covers up around them. After feathering kisses across the top of her head, he settled into his pillow, wrapping around her like a harness.

When Scully heard his soft snore and took in his angelic features, she murmured against his chest, “I love you, Mulder.” Then drifted off into a peaceful, content sleep.

*

“You okay?” Miller asked a flushed Einstein as he entered the kitchen.

“Wh-wh-what? No. I mean, yeah, I was just thirsty. I came down for some water.”

“It must be hot up there, your face is all red,” Miller observed, taking the iced tea Mulder made earlier out of the fridge.

“Hot air does rise,” Einstein said pointedly. Miller found it difficult to maintain eye contact with her and could see by the slight tremor in her hands something was bothering her. When their eyes did meet, an uncomfortable silence grew that forced him to take a physical step back.

“Well, have a good night,” he said, not able to think of much else, sensing she wanted him to leave. She was definitely acting weirder than normal.

Einstein was silent as he left the room with his glass of tea, finally hearing a faint, “you too” before closing the bedroom door.


	8. Einstein's Paradox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the crazy night at the cabin. Einstein is still recovering and Mulder is finding it all very amusing. Scully is still having spells.
> 
> People are frantic to get hold of the vaccine to save them from the Spartan virus, but the vaccine comes at a price- A microchip that is activated with a certain radio frequency and causes people to turn into unwilling participants to its command. 
> 
> Mulder and Scully and the gang are on a road trip to uncover the source of the signal. Gibson, William, Kyle, and Override are leading the way, following the voice in their head that they believe is the Source.

With Scully’s suggestion, Gibson took the wheel of the Aviator, while Einstein and Miller joined William’s caravan. Scully was a little relieved as Einstein had been giving her a very uncomfortable side eye all day, one that she wasn’t in the mood to deal with. 

Einstein tried not to think about what she had witnessed. Not wanting to admit the truth, some time had passed since her last sexual encounter. And, not wanting to recall the lucid dream she had last night of Scully and Mulder inviting her to their bed, with Miller watching in the backdrop. The sight had her frozen in place, like watching a car accident, and the dream had her waking in tangled sheets.

Monica approached Einstein before getting into the SUV; taking in her body and facial expressions as she stared at Scully. “You heard them last night too? They, uh, are known to get carried away.”

“Heard?” Einstein crossed her arms as her face soured. “They were right outside my window. _Saw._ I’m not going to be able to get that image out of my head any time soon. I’m surprised she can even walk.”

Monica chuckled. “What’ll blow your mind even further is when you see Mulder in a bathing suit.”

The signal, stronger than before, led them into a small town farther away from the coast. They continued to drive until the sound piercing through Gibson’s skull was so severe he thought it might crack. It pulled at the seams of the scarring along his cranium and reverberated in his temples. 

Along the road there were stations set up in front of the Department of Motor Vehicles, the post office, the courthouse. People standing in line around makeshift kiosks and tents. Big signs beckoning them in - **Free Spartan Virus Vaccinations Here**

Some of the people were so eager they were pushing ahead of the others, screaming that their children needed them now. A mother shouting that she wasn’t going to let her son die.

At the end of Main Street they stopped at a gas station to fill up. The rain that had started a little over an hour ago had diminished to gray lines reflecting from their headlights. 

Motorists continued to zoom past, others jogging on foot. All in a hurry to get the vaccine, like herds of sheep, not knowing a destination, but only that they were following the other.

William pumped gas as the passing cars sent curls of water spraying his way. He could still hear the signal pulsing in his head - **_You’ll Fear Not, Once You Get Your Shot._ **

Kyle happily pranced out of the mart with his red licorice twist waving in the air. He flicked his wrist to offer one to William and a bouquet of Twizzlers swayed from his closed fist. William laughed knowing his dad had shown Kyle that trick, grabbed one of the strawberry ropes and chucked it in his mouth, tossing it around his tongue like a toothpick. 

“We’re the ghost in the machine, William,” Kyle said. “They might be seeing into us, reading our thoughts, but only by letting us read theirs. We can use it to our advantage.”

“They’re telling us they offer life, safety for your loved ones. It’s propaganda if I’ve ever heard it,” Override answered from the rolled down window of the caravan.

“They’re using our capacity for love against us,” Mulder said, getting out to stretch his legs. “Our children, family, friends. That’s how they are drawing these people. With false hope that with the vaccination their worrying will cease. That they will all be safe.”

“We hear it in our sleep, Mulder,” Gibson said as he kicked the tire to the SUV and opened his bottle of coconut water. “Have you heard it cry? _End the Quarantine_ , _Vaccinate, Save Your Family._ ”

Mulder entered the mart to put the gas and some snacks and drinks for Scully on the government card. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he had the distinct feeling that someone or something had eyes on him. Inconspicuously, he pretended to look for a snack when he spotted Einstein at a magazine rack, spying on him, using one of the magazines like she was in an old detective movie.

It made him smile, but he didn’t let on. Why she was so curious about him paying for gas he couldn’t quite discern until he realized her eyes were raking over him like he might be her next meal. Mulder raised an eyebrow and shrugged his lips. Maybe she _was_ 50 shades of bad. In his early years he might have been self conscious, a tad shy, awkward maybe, obtuse even, but decades of Scully’s stroking had evolved him. So he pushed up his sleeves and leaned on the counter, squeezing his fist, forcing his biceps to bulge, his forearms to strain, and his back muscles to flex. He twisted her way as her eyes widened, tucking his shirt tight so she could clearly see each carefully formed ab. He could hear Einstein choking on her kombucha as he tilted his head her way and tossed her a wink. She quickly returned the magazine to the rack and headed out the door with the ring of the bell and a huff, leaving him to run his tongue over his teeth and chuckle to himself. The smell of stale hotdogs ruining the ambiance, Mulder grabbed his sundries and headed back to the car. 

Scully was leaning against the hot car when he approached her, the rain drops starting to steam under the summer sun. Still feeling quite full of himself, he noticed Scully grin as he approached and greeted her with a full on heated kiss before taking the cold bottle and applying it to her midriff. “What has gotten into you?” she said as she flinched, but her smile hadn’t receded.

“I don’t know. Just happy, I guess.” He kissed her again before getting in the car, and caught Einstein staring with slack jaw at his half mast as he did. He wiggled his eyebrows one last time before sliding in and closing the door. “All the exercise last night chopping that wood, guess I just slept really well,” he said in a low rumble to Scully as he fastened his seat belt. 

They pulled through towns, driving mostly at night. It was Mulder’s turn back behind the wheel and they were closing in on what Gibson and William believed was their destination. They were well into the mountains that few knew even existed or bothered to travel. What was there? A secret storage of servers? A false beacon?

Mulder glanced over at Scully and she returned the sentiment, reliving the feelings of the night before. A surge of desire ignited in him and he had a sudden urge to pull the car over and taste those lips that were so perfectly and seductively parted. His glare lasted a second too long and he had to swerve to keep from veering from his lane. 

It hadn’t stirred Scully until he took another wide curve and he noticed her grab for the dash. 

She looked rather green. “Are you going to be sick?” Mulder asked.

“No,” she frowned, but she didn’t look well. “It’s just these roads are a lot rougher than the ones around D.C.”

He couldn’t argue with that, but he knew there was more to it and he was worried enough to ask the unthinkable. “Would it help if you drove?” he questioned wearily.

“I think so,” she returned. So he pulled over and got her a bottle of water soaking in ice from the cooler and took shotgun.

The cold water felt so good as it slid down Scully’s throat, squelching the violent turmoil rumbling in her stomach. She glanced over at Mulder, he looked concerned, but the truth was she wasn’t exactly sure what had been going on with her body lately. She figured it was some kind of vitamin deficiency, but hadn’t put her finger on which one. In desperation, she bought some prenatals hoping to cover the spectrum. Her heart strummed peacefully as she looked over at Mulder, the illumination of the dash casting a glow onto his chiseled features. Her eyes fell on the GPS. According to Google, this area was supposed to be forest.

Scully pulled up to the light at the corner, listening to Mulder and the rest of their heavy breathing, deep into R.E.M. The sun was just beginning to break on the horizon, casting mulberry hues onto a peacock sky. She looked both ways and proceeded to cross the intersection when a ghastly scrawny middle aged man came out into the street. He had on a black mask, covering his nose and mouth. A strange feeling enveloped Scully like something had taken her breath. She waited at the cliff of anticipation for the man’s next move. He rapped on the hood and Scully almost stepped on the gas. 

He shouted, but he was muffled by the car and his mask.

Scully sent the driver window down only a crack so she could hear him. “Turn around!” he shouted. 

The man seemed to be struggling with his words. She realized he was giving them a warning. Fighting against the technology inside him, he pounded on the hood of the car. Suddenly, he jerked upwards like he was a zombie in a Michael Jackson video and walked on as if nothing had occurred. Scully gunned the accelerator and blazed out of town and into the early morning. 

The quick acceleration rocked Monica awake. She gazed sleepily out the window and gasped, bolting upright as she did. “Scully,” she beckoned in a harrowing whisper. Scully looked to the other side of the street where people marched in zombie like fashion. Their clothes ragged, soiled, and torn. Scully wondered if the people had eaten or slept or if they only blindlessly followed the song in their head. 

“How is that man still alive?” Monica asked, pointing at another stepping into the street without regard for cars, blood dripping from both sides of his head.

“I don’t know what is happening, Monica. But we’re close.”

“Dana, what if the blood coming from their heads is from the frequency? I’ve got a dull headache myself. I don’t know how much farther we should go or can go,” Monica replied.

Mulder, coaxed from dreamland by their conversation, and from Scully hitting every pothole in the country, turned on the radio. The news crackled to life speaking of cities burning, bombs detonated in the subways of London, and strange deaths of large numbers of birds, disturbances in aquatic life. The stories were hard to comprehend, the static overcame the voices at times, fading in and out. 

“Monica is right. The frequency pulses are higher here. We may need to take some precautions,” Mulder said.

“Like what?” Scully asked wearily.

“We’ve got some space blankets, and can make some aluminum foil hats. I know, it sounds crazy, but it is enough to interrupt a 5g signal,” Mulder offered.

“Mulder,” Scully chuckled. “Somehow, I knew we would get here one day. You don’t seriously expect us to walk around in aluminum hats.”

“At least enough to fit under a ball cap,” Mulder returned.

Monica looked out at those on the streets in distress. “What are we waiting for? Hand out the Reynold’s.”

They pulled over at a nearby rest stop and Mulder searched the car. “We don’t have enough aluminum foil for everyone,” he shouted out in disgust.

“Or maybe we do, Mulder,” Scully said, holding up a sandwich wrapped in foil. “Anyone hungry?”

The boys all grabbed theirs, William taking two. Einstein lifted one from the cooler hesitantly and Miller thanked Scully politely. Doggett was grateful for the sausage dog, while Monica and Scully enjoyed their salads. They each chose a spot on the hood and the curb, munching away. The boys ate their sandwiches and snacks, drinking their soft drinks talking about the funny itch in their heads.

“No visions this morning?” Kyle asked, breaking the munching silence. Gibson and William shook their heads. 

“What are you seeing?” Mulder said inquisitively.

“Not seeing, more like feeling,” Kyle attempted to explain. “Like being led by an invisible hand guiding your brain. It’s all very intrusive.”

“What does that mean?” Doggett asked. “Aliens are behind this?”

“No, these are humans,” Mulder answered.

“Hybrids?”

“No, humans, _using_ technology.” 

This time William spoke up. “We can feel the matrix. See it in our dreams. And the government is collaborating with _him._ With the alien.”

“What’s the endgame?” Doggett asked.

“They’re still trying to enslave us,” Mulder said.

“So where does that leave us?” Monica asked.

“I’d say certain death,” Doggett replied.

“What if,” Miller said, “the reason William, Kyle, and Gibson are hearing the signal, but are not affected is because they were subjected to something. That this is more than a gene that's allowing them to hear it. Do you recall being exposed to anything in recent years?”

William looked at his friends. Gibson spoke, “The drone at Maggie’s 1st birthday party. It released some kind of gas on you. You think that’s what enables you to hear the signal now?” 

“What’s your theory, Mulder?” Scully asked quietly. 

Mulder sat calmly, running his tongue over his bottom teeth causing his mentalis muscle to bulge. “I think Miller may be partly correct. If Kyle and Override are results of hybrid testing and if hybrids are affected by the frequency, just as that chip they are injecting in people are, it might make sense.” 

“I don’t think we have enough evidence to make that assumption,” she replied almost immediately.

Mulder’s eyes had been bright but now they dulled a little. “We’ve passed people who have committed suicide, that are bleeding from the ears. It reminded me of a case we were on long ago, a Patrick Krump that had died from a different type, but similar pulse. Killing people cannot be their intent. Not if they are giving them the vaccine and what they are really after are slaves of mind control.”

“But to fix it they’ll have to upgrade,” Miller continued.

“Which means rebooting the system,” Override agreed.

“Mulder you’re drawing conclusions that may not have merit. That’s quite a leap,” Scully pointed out. “5G operates at largely the same frequency of other networks and there is no proof that it can penetrate even human skin. It’s a form of non-ionizing radiation, which means they don't have enough energy to damage the DNA inside of cells and cause cancer, unlike, say, X-rays.”

“What about the birds?” Monica challenged.

“If there was a bird of prey, perhaps it caused a confusion which spread to larger flocks nearby,” Scully replied. “We need to be careful not to reinterpret randomness. Right Mulder?”

But Mulder was paying her little attention, partly talking to himself out loud. “Errors, glitches in their programming may be slowing them down. That will be the opportunity we need to hack inside.”

As if heeding to Mulder’s hypothesis, birds rose from the trees in multitudes - vultures, crows and more- scalding the hot summer air with their cries. 

Doggett got up and stretched, “I think now’s a good time to drain the snake.”

“I think it’s time to get out of here,” Einstein chirped in. Mulder figured she was just dizzy from shaking her head back and forth in disbelief.

A little re-organizing and head covering- those that had caps, shoved the foil underneath, while the others made foil kerchiefs- and they were ready to move on. William decided to get in the car with his parents and Monica and Doggett for the last few miles, to meet what they were still uncertain of. 

“Have we taken the time to consider why they haven’t at least tried to stop us yet?” Mulder asked the group. “They have to know we’re coming. They hear us.”

“What are you saying Mulder?” Doggett asked. “You think they’re clearing the way? Feeding us breadcrumbs straight to the witch’s oven?” Looking out the windshield Doggett warned, “Up ahead. You’re not going to like this William.”

William looked. They all did. Standing there and smiling at them, raising a hand as if to wave, almost glowing gray against the pale blue sky, was the one who claimed William to carry his alien DNA. The Alien, along with the last Bounty Hunter, were poised for action. Following behind them were hundreds, possibly thousands of people, and when it turned, they parted, and then followed like long feathers on a male peacock. 

“We’ll go at a slower pace,” Mulder said. “According to the map there’s a trail not too far from the end of town going up into the mountains. My guess is it will lead us to where these servers are stored.” 


	9. Aliens Never Invented Deodorant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, as usual I take news and science from different sources to work into my story. 2020 has never made it easier. We're in search of an alien and a bunch of servers that are responsible for the signal being emitted enabling, with the aid of the vaccine, mind control. 
> 
> If you want the real scoop of what everyone's thoughts are, Gibson is the man who knows. That could probably make a good fic in itself.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50092663666/in/dateposted/)

Dirty faces and watchful eyes stared them down as they drove a mere 15 miles an hour through the streets of town. A man and woman laid on the side of the road, dead in an embrace. Dozens more were lying dead, several dismembered. Hitchhikers with thumbs held out looking for safe travels off the grid. Not all were lucid, some were heading in different directions, confused. Others, dazed and confused one minute, focused the next. Meanwhile, Gibson wished everybody would stop thinking of the cabin. Between Mulder’s dirty thoughts and Einstein’s, it was making him sick. And Monica kept playing her night with Doggett over and over in her mind. Scully was the only sane one, but even her mind drifted and then there were thoughts of babies… Miller interested him the most of all. His thoughts wandered from wanting to think more like Mulder (if he only knew), to concerns over the future, to straightening Einstein’s curls.

Not far out of town, Just as Mulder said, they came across a place that William recognized, which was unsettling since he had never set eyes on it before. Never even been in this part of the country, that was, except, in his dream. Just as they turned onto the dirt road, they came to an open field that looked like they had recently held the state fair, or a rock concert. Grass was churned to bare earth by the amount of footprints. A giant tent far off across the field, wrapped around a trunk like a skirt in the wind. They continued onward, the trail cluttering the windshield with various bugs and mud. It led to some heavy brush and then the track narrowed and ended at the base of a mountain.

The car came to a halt and William immediately jumped out. He was hit suddenly with a vision. Inside his head the alien looked at him with those dusty eyes, and said two words:  **_manifest destiny_ ** .

“We better change into our tennis shoes, Monica,” Scully snipped. “This is going to be a hike up that mountain.” 

They had been in the car so long Scully’s legs had fallen numb. They didn’t even feel like her own. Gone were the days when taking a long drive without many stops didn’t translate to stiff backs and sore muscles. She felt a little better when she turned to see their younger counterparts stretching and yawning. Although, she had reached the end of her patience with Einstein’s Muldergaping. One more ogle and she would meet Alpha Dana. 

Scully took her attention from Einstein and turned to Mulder, “I’m going to call Charlie. You said the signals from the towers are weak. If they are using satellites, Charlie can stop it.”

"Mulder, have you heard the latest about the Mayan calendar?" Miller huffed out as they traversed the steep grade of the mountain trail. He waited for Mulder to direct his attention towards him and shake his head before continuing. "We may have it all wrong, that is wasn't 12-21-12 that was the end of the world, but 06-21-2020."

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Miller, but we're already passed that date," Mulder replied. "But there's more to it isn't there?"

Miller laughed. "T he Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII changing the Julian calendar that was there before. One of the differences was that it removed 11 days from our year to better reflect the Earth orbiting around the Sun. Over 286 years adds up, and with some basic math, it just happens that we're still in 2012."

"I get it, and you're about to tell me how it pertains to us saving humans from global mind control."

Miller smiled at Mulder's petulance. The heat and the climb had everyone's nerves on end. "Maybe June 21st was the true date instead of December 21st 2012. It's in your files that it was the date you saw in those computers as the day of the invasion, but what if that was also following the Julian calendar. An additional layer of protection if it was seen by the wrong hands. You said it was the Smoking Man that led you to the Truth. What if that whole time, even armed with the answer, it wasn't really the answer at all?"

That made Mulder stop dead in his tracks. The stone look in his hazel eyes, made fear course through Miller's veins. He looked like he might strike someone.

"So.. by that logic, the real invasion was scheduled 06-21-20. And what? Us killing the Smoking Man stopped this invasion?" Mulder asked rhetorically.

Miller answered him anyway. "That's when the final phase began. The invasion is happening now. it's been happening. In plain sight."

Mulder cast Scully a harrowing gaze. 

"Let's keep moving," Scully answered him back.

“Miller's got an eye for alternate ways of approaching a case,” Monica said to Einstein as she handed her a bottle of water and opened one for herself. "Smart and cute. You shouldn't let that go to waste."

Einstein turned back with a scowling glare. “I think that statement was quite inappropriate and unprofessional.”

Monica let Einstein charge ahead and then mumbled to Scully, “Wow. Who put the stick up her ass?”

“Did you hear that?” Kyle asked Miller. “Monica said you look cute.”

“I know. She’s beautiful,” Miller returned, his eyes glowing.

“Ew, guys. Come, on. That’s my aunt,” William said, kicking the stones as he walked.

“She’s still lit,” Kyle smirked over to Miller.

Miller blushed. Realizing he was technically “on-the-job”, distracted himself with his phone. The news only confirmed the justification for their journey. East Africa and West Asia were combating a surging locus outbreak, giant toxic toads in South Florida emerged after heavy rains, the Bubonic plague sweeping through Mongolia, he extended his neck and tilted his head back towards the high arcing broad leaves blocking the sun like a canopy. The X-Files were everywhere, and that could be exciting, empowering, overwhelming and downright terrifying. Miller embraced it all as he breathed in the sweet blooms. He came back down to earth, focusing on the path ahead. The forest floor woven with ancient tree roots, shadowed ominously by the filtered bouquet of foliage above: soft, verdant and freshly aromatic.

“We go this way,” William announced, the alien calling him in his head: **_Keep coming._** **_Save the one you love._** That was it, wasn’t it? Everyone choosing to line up for the shots, to save themselves, each other, but that was where the choices ceased. That signal took over once the microchip was inserted and the illusion of safety ended. They all transformed to lemmings. Civilization had ended, burning to the ground. 

Couple hours later, footsore and damp, they came to a standstill. Built into the rock was a steel door. Mulder considered what they might be facing once they walked through. For several miles they had walked in silence, with only thoughts for company. His thoughts had wandered, but mostly it was that he missed his daughter desperately. They were risking their lives once again and Maggie didn’t deserve that. The heavy doors pushed open and on the other side there were no guards or cameras. Why should there be when they were welcomed there? This was a trap, they all knew it and yet they entered. 

William stopped, breath shallow, one hand gripping an I-beam as he leaned over. “William, what is it?” Scully asked, almost in a panic. “Show me what you’re seeing!” 

Her third eye lit up in a fury of lights and when it cleared, she saw the Alien, holding out his hand, and Maggie, her red locks springing to life, running towards him. She looked so small against the long toothpick legs of the gray alien. Maggie was smiling, armed with nothing but her pure spirit and whatever gifts God had blessed her with.

It was Mulder who broke the vision with a heavy hand at her shoulder. “We have to keep moving Scully, if we plan to get there when the computer restarts and finishes the upgrade. This may be the only chance we have of inserting the virus.”

“Do you hear that?” Einstein said into the cool dim lit corridor. The sporadic overhead lighting allowing them to see only shadows.

“Yeah, that’s the sound of them preparing our graves,” Doggett remarked. “If this plan of yours don’t work Mulder, I hope our insurance policies are paid up.”

Just as the words left Doggett’s mouth, the floor and walls of the sanctum shook, pieces of rock and debris crumbled from up above. It felt as though the Earth itself was caving in. The overhead lights popped and shorted, leaving them drenched in blackness. For several minutes they clung to the I-beams, Mulder rushing to Scully’s side, surrounding her body with his as he held her against the steel pillar, shielding her from pieces of granite and granules of concrete. When the quake ceased, Scully called out against Mulder’s muscled chest, “Everybody okay?” 

Each one answered back, Einstein brushing off the dust and crying out, “What the hell was that?”

“I’m pretty sure it was an earthquake,” Monica answered her. 

“No,” Scully corrected, “It was asteroid 2002 NN4. They were talking about it over the radio. It must have passed by Earth.”

The lights had returned, although it was not the overheads but what must have been emergency lighting. “Mulder, if this place lost power, is it possible the signal has stopped?”

“But it hasn’t,” William said. “I still hear it in my head.”

Kyle and Gibson agreed.

“Then where is the power coming from? Generators alone couldn’t power cell towers. Could they?” Miller asked.

“I’d find that highly unlikely,” Doggett answered.

“Which means there’s an alternate power source,” Mulder said. “Originating from inside.”

“Inside?” Miller asked. “But how?”

“How were they able to get all this erected? How did they fund it without it raising any eyebrows?” Monica asked.

“I believe this is part of that 1.5 Billion dollar budget for 5G and microelectronics the DoD requested,” Doggett replied. “I’d tell you to complain to your congress, but they’re already slaves to the system.”

“They served as drones to the system way before 5G,” Mulder snided.

They walked the narrow halls, zig zagging in the unfamiliar maze that Kyle and William knew from nightmares. It all ended with a thousand blinking lights, rotating in succession, forming patterns in chaos. Standing in front of this monument of servers, was the Alien. 

“I guess aliens don’t believe in showers,” Mulder said, coughing out the stench from his lungs. It smelled like a barrel of dead fish being eaten by a pig soaked in slop while cooking liver and cabbage. Yes, it was that bad. He made Bandaid Man smell like a can of Febreze.

The alien stared back at Mulder with a vacant malevolence in his solid dark eyes. He twisted his neck and his telepathy ran through William’s thoughts -  **_The Gang’s All Here_ **

William could feel the Alien rummaging through his mind, wanting to know their plans, but Gibson had taught him well and he wasn’t giving away their secrets that easily. 

“Oh shit,” Kyle exclaimed. “They _ are _ here.” 


	10. Rage Against the Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our case file concludes with this chapter. Next chapter we'll get into Scully's health, reunite with Maggie, and Mulder will have some big decisions to make.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50102975891/in/dateposted/)

Behind them, from where they had come were now crammed with people. Hypnotized by their chips, they stood shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip awaiting the host's instructions. How many were there? Hundreds? Thousands?

The Alien was still looking at William, but a crease had formed between the Bounty Hunter’s brow as if something had puzzled him. 

The Alien pointed his long bony finger at William and sent the message,  **_Slow William. We are starting our new beginning. It won’t be long._ **

William was staring at the Alien, but Mulder had his sights on the Bounty Hunter. He still had that crease between his brow. Was he confused as to what he was reading in William’s mind? Gibson’s mind, or maybe even his own? 

“Forgive me if I’m not at all trusting of your plans for us,” Mulder said, “but you could have done better with the welcoming committee. Maybe next time bring a bottle of wine, some balloons, a couple streamers.”

He glanced over at Scully. _ What now, Mulder?  _ she asked him with her eyes.

Mulder answered for the crowd. “It’s time for the disco portion of this shindig.”

“Don’t use your gun,” Monica yelled when she saw Einstein point at them. “They’re innocent people. It’s the implants in the vaccine!”

The crowd pushed forward. Mulder, Doggett, Scully, and Monica formed a human shield surrounding both Kyle and William who were busy focusing their minds. They fought off the wall of people as well as they could, but Scully knew soon they would be trampled. She was able to fend off four of them before one yanked her hair and pulled her to the ground. Scully grabbed the woman’s wrist and twisted, breaking free of the grip as another one pulled at her shirt. Mulder yelled out her name and she followed the sound of his voice, locking her hand with his as he pulled her up. A few steps and she tripped over a leg, an arm, bodies everywhere. From the corner of her eye she saw Override, lunging forward, pistoning his legs, fighting off the crowd like a running back with a football going for the touchdown. He’ll never make it Scully thought, the crowd closing in on them like ants on a donut. The air became thick as the bodies surrounded her, restricting her air, crushing her. It was a fight of pure will. Her vision tunneled and Scully fought to stay conscious; her sights set on Override; he had made it to the servers. The brainwashed were ignoring him, staggering around aimlessly, showing no interest in anything past where the alien stood like an invisible shield. 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kyle and William and then the entire world seemed to vanish in a wall of white light. The roar swallowing the screams of the crowd in a hungry blast. The glass protecting the servers blew in, covering Mulder, Doggett, and Miller in sparkling dust as they ducked and covered their heads. The mountain shook and a wall tore away, bringing with it a hail of rocks, iron and steel upon the crowd. The pillars seemed to bend back absorbing the impact. The screaming of pain ripped through Scully’s head like a chainsaw, but as quickly as it came it was gone and so was the Bounty Hunter. Mulder pulled Scully to her feet. He was shouting, but she couldn’t hear him over the loud ring in her ears. It was like they were filled with cotton, but she read his lips mouth “Let’s Go!”

They passed Doggett who had stumbled getting back to his feet. They linked arms with Monica and her in turn with him, pushing their way through the crowd like they were on the dance floor of a club minus the beer and lingering goat smell. On their way to the servers, Scully spotted Miller and Einstein. Einstein was frozen, staring in disbelief and shock at what was left of the Bounty Hunter and the damage Kyle and William were able to do with only their minds. 

The blast took out more than the Bounty Hunter. Along the way to find Override were scattered limbs, bodies that looked like they had been turned inside out, and clothes with no bodies in them at all. Scully was horrified to think those were innocent people. Mulder had run ahead, his height enabling him to run through the crowd much faster. Scully stayed behind with the rest. They made their way slowly to the east wall, where they found a corridor away from the crowds. Eventually, the large tunnel opened to offices, and with it, surveillance rooms. 

“This must be their security office,” Scully explained to Monica.

“Yeah, but it’s empty,” said Einstein, still gripping her gun so tightly, her fingertips had blanched with lack of circulation.

“There were people here,” Miller said, pointing to the half empty coffee pot, the blue light indicating the heating element was active. 

“Which means we’ll have company pretty soon,” Doggett confirmed. “The DoD is most likely on their way. Is there something specific we’re looking for back here?”

“The power source,” Scully replied, flicking on her flashlight, running its luminescence down across the switches and buttons. 

“Dana,” Monica called, “I don’t know what or who that is, it hardly looks human… but this could be it.”

Through the monitor was a bald man, possibly 50 years old, perched on a chair watching multiple television screens. The shows on the television kept cutting to different shows, like someone was changing channels. 

“Is he doing that with his mind?” Einstein asked.

“No,” Scully replied, her voice distant as she explained. “He suffers from an acute hypokalemia electrolytic imbalance in his blood. He’s summoning the power. That’s why the cell towers are working even after the asteroid knocked out the power grid.” 

“How could you possibly know all this?” Doggett said.

Scully’s eyes widened. “Because that is Darin Oswald.”

Darin turned his head slowly to look into the camera with his haunting ghoulish eyes. “Mrs. Kiveat? Mrs. Kiveat!” He stood on top of his chair, drool running from the right corner of his bottom lip as he jumped up and down as if imitating a chimpanzee. “Mrs. Kiveat!”

Scully took a frightful step back and Doggett powered off the monitor. “I’m ready to leave this fun house,” Doggett said.

Back in the center room, their noses filled with the acrid smell of burning flesh. Those that were alive had dispersed and the rest lay like ragdolls. The Alien’s body was steaming, his head warped in concave fashion, his mouth shaped in a grimace of fury, his mind screaming a dying declaration while oozing green acidic blood. Scully yelled for everyone to cover their nose and mouths.  They scanned the room and found William where they had left him with Kyle beside him. 

Concerned, amazed, and loving eyes swept over William’s disheveled appearance. His hair stood on end, even the ones on his arms.  He looked back with a wariness that ate at Scully’s soul. Had the Alien damaged her boy? She watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat and his jaw dropped down. He fell to his knees and Scully ran to catch him before his face hit the ground. 

Arms outstretched he clung to his mother. “It’s over. Really over,” he hollowly repeated. 

It took several minutes, but Scully got him to his feet and they rushed to find Mulder and Override. 

“We need a couple more minutes,” Override screamed.

“They’re coming. We’ve got to leave now!” Doggett returned.

Quickly, Override pulled the thumb drive and they ran, but not before the place began to rock again, and the ceiling began to cave. Rushing for their lives, the beams holding the structures shredded like spaghetti, every bulb bursting and crackling, electricity sparking from wires as they made it to the exit. 

“What is happening?” Einstein screamed, “Another meteor?”

“If it is, it’s screaming for Mrs. Kaveat,” Gibson said. “It’s all I hear in my head.”

“It’s Darin,” Scully said. “In his fury he must have emitted an enormous electromagnetic pulse.”

“Rogue electric currents. He’s overloading the system. Disrupting and destroying the circuits,” Override stated. 

Mulder pushed open the steel doors, aided by Kyle and Override, the dead weight of the bodies laying on the other side making it a difficult task.

Outside, they were blinded by helicopter flood lights and could hear the engines of heavy trucks approaching. Quickly they scrambled into their vehicles and headed down an unbeaten path, dodging trees and thick brush. Out, into the night. 


	11. Life in the Fast Lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mulder has an announcement, Scully stands in front of the board, things get heated in the car, and it all ends in a bang.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50117737791/in/dateposted/)

**FBI Headquarters**

“How did you get the grave misfortune of being assigned to debrief with me?” Mulder asked Skinner as he crossed his legs and shifted in his seat. The images Mulder had of Scully in the hearing, fighting for her job without him had his underwear chafing.

“Everyone else is currently unavailable,” Skinner explained.

“You don’t find it strange that you and I are not invited?”

“Maybe you should worry about your own ass first. The charges set forth against you Mulder are serious. Destruction of commercial and government property, dismantling a government security system… You created a giant setback in telecommunications …”

“Did you read my report?”

“Yes, Mulder. Without proof…”

“I have proof,” Mulder said, retrieving the vial from his pocket. “This is the microchip found in every vaccine made by the government. They are not just markers as the pharmaceutical companies would have you believe, but in fact, complex drives which under certain frequencies can be used to manipulate human behavior. On this thumb drive, is the DAT file, in a read-only text format that clearly outlines the intention of the military.” 

Skinner took the vial and held it to the light, the tiny microchip a mere glint in the water. “The military has already disbanded their sub 6 frequency and have gone online with a strictly government frequency away from commercial airwaves and hackers.”

“In other words, covering their tracks, erasing the evidence.”

Mulder handed Skinner a printed memo. “You’re retiring? Care to share with me your reasons?”

“I think that vial in your hand speaks volumes. I think Scully’s hearing shouts it even louder. It’s time Walter. Through the years, the faces of the people have changed, their political affiliations, but in the end, one is as corrupt as the next. As much truth that is uncovered, more gets masked and diluted. I’ve been mocked, cast into the basement, disrespected, and downright lied to.”

“They still need you Mulder.”

“They need people  _ like _ me and you have them. Version 2.0. Agent Miller will do a fine job and I believe there are others who will join him. The truth doesn’t need to be stashed in a basement anymore. It needs to see the light of day, and that team must rise up and be leaders, otherwise we’re repeating the past.” 

“You’re certain.”

Mulder nodded his head. “It’s my turn to have a life and I’m going to enjoy that life. Scully and I, we’re ready to chase a different truth.” 

Skinner reached across his desk and held out his hand for Mulder to shake. “For what it’s worth, Mulder. I think you’re doing the right thing.” He rotated his jaw. “One last thing though. How did you create a virus to do that much damage to such a sophisticated system?”

Mulder chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Langley,” Mulder replied. “We put the computerized version of Langley into the system and he sacrificed himself by programming a virus to take down the network where he was contained.”

Mulder left Skinner’s office and headed to the hearing room where he waited on the hard oak bench in the hallway. 45 minutes later, the doors opened and a crowd dispersed. When Scully walked out, Mulder was right on her heels.

“How did it go?”

“They closed the case file,” Scully said, doubling her steps to match his long strides. “The investigation is complete. No charges have been filed against me.”

“It’s because you wore the gray suit,” he smirked.

“That’s it,” she said sarcastically, returning his celebratory grin.

“How were you able to convince them?” Mulder asked as they turned down the long hallway. “How did you explain him losing his head?”

“Spontaneous Combustion.”

That halted Mulder in his tracks. She stopped and walked a few steps back to meet him. His eyebrows lifted to meet the surprised creases in his forehead. “You. You used spontaneous combustion as a defense and they found your case solid.” Mulder furrowed his brow, scrunching his nose as if he caught a whiff of a dead fish. “What am I missing?”

“There had been an explosion, the place was covered in jet fuel and gun powder. It is plausible that a spark combined with residue and some static electricity could have been enough of a catalyst to ignite a fire, a quick flash, arcing, heating his cranial fluid and creating enough pressure for his… head.. to... explode.”

The corners of Mulder’s mouth raised higher and Scully blushed and grinned in return. “It is plausible,” he agreed. “You always keep me guessing.”

They started again towards the door, this time keeping a more leisurely pace. Scully added, “Well, given that there was no other evidence of external fire or that a weapon of any kind was used, gives more credence to the theory.”

“I see… I mean, it seems plausible, most likely probable,” Mulder said, a spring forming in his step as he pushed open the door and placed a hand at the small of her back. “And most of all, it’s over.”

“Is it? And what about Kersh’s wife? His children? I don’t think it’s over for them,” Scully said, opening her car door as Mulder took off his sports jacket and slid into the driver’s seat. “We’ve set up a fundraiser, but more than that, a big brother/big sister program in Kersh’s name with his children being the first eligible. Alika has already decided to be Big Sister to his daughter.”

Mulder nodded. “It’s positive and it’s good, but they still are without their father.” He started the car and drove off heading into the outskirts of town towards their house. He twisted his grip on the steering wheel. “Scully, I’ve been thinking about you and all that you have had to overcome. There were so many times when men have treated you less than, that have stereotyped you, the blatant sexism and harassment..”

Scully shook her head. “Mulder, sometimes you might have sexualized a woman while on a case, even tirelessly flirted with them, but you always treated me as your partner, treated me with respect. I was a big girl, I took care of myself. I didn’t need you to save me, and I never felt that you did anything inappropriate towards me or treated me as anything other than a partner.”

Mulder tightened his lip forming a hard line. “That may be true, but there were times when I stood quiet and instead I should have been vocal. I should have done more to push the issue. I’m the first to fight for what is right, to get the truth out there, but not when it came to that. I should have been an advocate. My failure to act means that now my daughter may face some of those same barriers, the same harassment and disrespect, prejudices. I will be vocal and I will not have a lack of action anymore. Not about sexism or descrimination against sexual orientation or identity, and not about racism. My lack of action was the same as acceptance and made me just as guilty.” 

“Mulder,” Scully pleaded.

Mulder stopped the car at the red light and looked over at Scully. His heart was in his throat. “Yeah?” 

Scully leaned over and pressed her lips to his. It ignited and soothed and let him know she approved and forgave. They pulled apart as the light turned green, but he still felt the tug of their connection.

“Have you eaten?” he asked casually. “Last stop before home.” Home. He always liked the sound of that.

“I can wait,” Scully replied. The air between them had warmed and Mulder’s heart lived in that space. 

She absentmindedly leaned into him, using his arm as her source of comfort. Her hand casually coaxing his inner thigh. He kept passing her a look that felt like a question. She answered it by moving her hand.. higher. 

Mulder selected his goto playlist for romance. Then his hand meandered south, acting partially surprised when his fingers collided with Scully’s knee and danced along her shin only to reach higher and give her knee cap a squeeze. Gauging her reaction, his hand wandered to her thigh with the next song, reaching  the top of her skirt. One button at a time, slowly, methodically, he freed each one. 

There was no fumbling like when they were younger. Mulder learned quickly and took direction well. In those aforementioned years, Scully may have been quick to stop him, but she had none of those feelings now. They had just gotten off a long hard road and now she wanted long hard Mulder. No one was driving alongside them and no truck behind them. Her skirt unbuttoned, he reached for his sports jacket on the back seat and placed it over her lap. Mulder’s hand slipped under the coat that covered her and pressed his warm palm firmly against the soft fabric under her skirt. Scully looked at him and swallowed hard. Mulder looked straight ahead, his face suggesting only that he was engaged in driving. Scully tried to play it cool as well but she was distracted by the warmth of his hand, and the protective sensation of being covered by his gray coat with the dark blue satin lining, its familiar scent and feel, held the memories of lives past. 

He concentrated on the road, or at least seemed to, never looking at her once, as his fingers crept under the soft cotton. It was erotic, melancholy and perhaps a little grave. 

Scully leaned her neck back, her eyes fluttering shut as her body began to tense. The sensations were building too quickly. Mulder’s hand understood and slowed itself down, its rhythm matching her own. 

“Mulder,” she cried as he finally turned his head and she met the eyes that reached right into her soul. “Hurry.”

Mulder stepped on the gas and Scully reached for his stick. She preferred the feel of this linen to tight restraining denim, although sweats had their own delightful function. Her hand could hardly cover half of his proud length. It teased her that she couldn’t reach inside, as her fingers steadily kneaded him over the creased fabric.

“Uh, Scully.” Mulder breathed, looking at her desperately. “I still have to drive.”

“Drive faster,” she replied back.

He looked at her longingly, painfully, and when her hand stroked over the crest of his cock he said, “Fuck it,” and unbuttoned his pants with one hand, ripping open the zipper, and freeing himself from his boxers.

It only took one wave of his magic wand and her mouth was around him, licking and sucking, swirling and drooling. 

Mulder reached around her and entered her with his fingers from behind. It forced her to suck harder, almost choking, the head slapping at the back of her throat. His fingers strummed inside her and her whole body tightened and released, pulsing pleasure erupted and she took it all out on his cock, moving faster and harder, using the pooled saliva to coat him underneath.

He moaned again, “Uh, Scully, I’ve  _ got _ to pull over.” His hand softly caressed the back of her head, “I want to be inside you.” But even as he said it his fingers tangled in her hair and his hips lifted, forcing her jaw wider, stretching her lips over the firm expanse to accommodate such a thick heavy cock. “Christ, Scully,” he groaned through gritted teeth.

The tires bumped and sputtered as he swerved into the rumble strips along the side of the road. He self corrected and Scully pressed her hand on his knee, forcing his foot down on the gas pedal, straining the engine. “This is dangerous, Scully. Fuck, it feels good though.” 

They hit the country roads when Mulder cried suddenly, startling Scully. “I can’t wait any longer.” He drove off the road and onto the grass, the AWD engaging as his shocks were tested. He stopped as soon as they were shaded by two tall pines. 

Scully gave him one last long wet lick, locking onto his gaze and next thing she heard and felt was the thud as the back of her head hit the passenger seat window, Mulder on top of her spreading her legs wide, his thumb swirling over her clit while the other hand reproduced the scene in Titanic. His tongue was wet and slick in her mouth and tasted dangerous and forbidden. Well, also like coffee and over chewed sunflower seeds, but fuck that first bite of his testosterone and she was higher than the 757 passing overhead. 

He shifted closer to her and she could feel him bobbing against her quivering inner thigh, teasing her folds. Their mouths parted wider, tongues licking over and over, desperately trying to devour the other.

She craved that weight on top of her. His overpowering desire and unwavering will to please her surged into her on a nuclear level.

Mulder was groaning and Scully was moaning like it was the only chance they would ever have again. Mulder’s bottom lip swiped over hers and the wave of pleasure was so fierce she almost experienced time loss. No man had ever kissed her to make her want in this way, make her crave with desperation and mindlessness. And the man doing this to her was Mulder, her husband.

Her sex ached and throbbed at every stroke of his hand. He was clutching her ass, descending into the depths of her kiss. It was so intense Scully found herself gripping and rubbing his muscled forearms and biceps and shoulders. 

His scruffy beard against her skin made her feel naughty and wicked out here in the middle of nowhere with cars rushing by. As her hard nipples brushed against his strong chest, the pleasure was excruciatingly sweet. 

Scully pulled away gasping for breath as they looked at each other’s mouths. There was amusement in Mulder’s eyes mixed with heat and something dark. Scully ached again and drew him closer. 

His eyes closed and she felt the pleasure rush through him like it was her own. 

One more tender brush of his lips and he pushed into her, and she cried out. Even after being stretched and wrought to a frenzied pitch by his fingers, her walls quivered as he pushed in farther, all the way into her until there was nowhere left to go. His beautiful cock inside her was the most satisfyingly, full feeling. As he slid in and out, he took turns between sucking her nipples and kissing her lips. When he held her face in his hands and stared into her eyes, she felt all of their connection. 

She felt their lives entwined, to the point it was inconceivable that they should ever be apart. Mulder was like staring into the sun, his passions blinding. She stood in that fire yet never consumed, instead it made her shine brighter, and think wiser. What they had was more love than love and it created a desire to unite, their intimate reflection cast out through their physical assertion - heated and hard rapid thrusts. Slamming into each other as she screamed in pleasure. Mulder thrusted so hard she could feel him in every part of her body. She thought they might crack a window but still the pleasure coaxed her to push back into him, wanting more. 

“You’re going to kill me, Scully,” he said breathlessly, sweat dripping from his face and chest, “but I can take it.” 

He slowed his pumps and asked teasingly, “You want more?”

Scully replied, hardly able to to get the words out, “I want it all.”

He laughed a quiet lust filled sound. “So do I,” and slammed into her again. Over and over until she was screaming for it, her back bowing into him, begging him not to stop as her walls tightened and swelled. 

Mulder kept a steady furious pace that no human man could keep for such a long period of time. Only Mulder. It was a constant rhythm that allowed her to come, and she did, hard and fast. As the satisfaction welled inside her she felt his body tense, his hand clutch the dash and the other the headrest, as he released a low animalistic sound pulsing and filling her completely.

Her knees were shaking, energy spent, and they were both panting heavily. In that moment, she began to get a sense of her surroundings and realized the awkward position she was in with her head against the glass and the armrest in her back. 

He gave her a couple more short kisses. His body shimmering with sweat as he reached into the glove compartment for a baby wipe and straightened his back to pull out. Every muscle he had was wound tight like he had just come from a workout. He passed her long lingering looks, as he cleaned off and tucked himself away, that burned in her chest and continued to send spasms between her legs. He buttoned up his pants and shirt that had been sent to the back seat and picked up his jacket that was now under the glove box. 

“Let’s go home,” he said with a peck to her forehead and they shared a sweet smile as he held her hand the whole way home. 

*

After Dinner, Mulder sat with Maggie on the couch watching Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. It was  the story of a young girl named Kipo as she undertook an exciting adventure on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Mulder felt it was a little too old for her, but Maggie loved the characters, so they watched.  She leaned into Mulder, her head resting contentedly against his pectoral muscle. His arm naturally draped around his little girl.  A few moments later she picked up his large hand between her tiny ones. She smiled and touched each of his fingers with her own, splaying her hand wide. She'd brought him back to life in more ways than one. Scooting away from him a bit she laid down, stretching out on the couch. Her head rested on his thigh and she held his hand under her chin as she dozed.

Scully finished cleaning up and headed into the living room to join them, but Mulder knew there was something wrong as soon as she got there. He could see the beads of perspiration at her hairline, the lack of color in her cheeks, and the short gait in her walk. When he saw her buckle and Maggie bolt upright and yell, “Mama!” he leapt from the couch in time to help hold her up and get her into a seated position. 

“Mulder, I’m fine. It’s been a stressful day, a good night’s sleep and I’ll feel better,” Scully said, leaning her elbow on her knee, her hand holding up her head.

Mulder squatted in front of her taking her hand. “Scully, listen to me. This is more than low iron. This has been going on for a while. I’m driving you to the hospital.” 

Her mouth formed words to contradict him, but her strength failed her and it came out in faint whispers. Within a few short minutes, Mulder had Maggie in her carseat and Scully at the passenger end, racing to the hospital. Two hours later the lab tests were back. Upon Scully’s request, Mulder respectfully waited in the hallway as she spoke with the doctor. He feared the worst.. Her cancer, the stress of low iron had on her heart, her kidneys, his mind was reeling and setting him into a pacing panic. Just when he was certain he would burst, the doctor left her room and closed the door. He nodded as he passed by Mulder. Mulder ignored him, barging into Scully’s room, his anxiety leveling as she greeted him with a weak smile. 

“I’m fine, Mulder. I need rest and vitamins, but other than that, I’m healthy.”

Mulder pulled up a chair and with a tender kiss to her forehead, took her hand and sandwiched it between his. “We will rest, take time off.” He kissed her fingers. 

“Mulder, there is one thing that showed up in the lab results,” Scully said, stumbling over her words.

Mulder’s brows peaked as he feared the worst. Scully took several deep breaths. 

“Take your time,” Mulder requested even though his insides were bursting. Whatever it was he could take it as long as everyone was healthy. 

Scully spoke slowly in whispered breaths.“Mulder you’re not just going to be a grandfather, but a father.”

The lines between his brow deepened, “I know, Scully, I…” Mulder’s stomach sank. He forced his brain to push forward. “wait… no.. you don’t mean…”

Scully nodded her head slowly. “I do, Mulder.”

This was going to make his retirement announcement a little sticky. Maybe they should have discussed it before he impulsively handed in his reasoned and justified resignation. “Scully, how is this possible?”

“The doctor said my organs are operating at a level that equates to a thirty five year old woman. What William did, so that we were able to conceive Maggie, it must have reprogrammed my cells to repair themselves and now, well, they’re still functional.”

Mulder’s mind sparked in several directions. His eyes lit with comprehension and relief. “Scully, what if what William thought he did, he didn’t do.”

Scully squeezed his hand. Mulder guessed by the look on her face she was struggling with her emotions and the thought made his own eyes blur. “What do you mean?”

“What if, the way it was possible for us to conceive Maggie was the same way we conceived William, which is the same way we conceived this child.”

The room fell silent and Mulder could almost see the pictures forming in Scully’s brain. “How?” she finally asked.

With his thumb he stroked her hand. “We willed it into existence,” he suggested softly. “Think of the conversations we had right before they were conceived, our state of mind. What if, with the aid of that chip at the base of your neck, is how we were able to conceive?”

Scully drew in a long shuddering breath and Mulder noticed the color had returned to her cheeks. “Mulder, none of the other women who ever had the chip in their neck, whether they took it out or not reported recovering their fertility.”

Mulder smiled humorlessly. “Yes, but none of those other women were Dana Katherine Scully and none of them was with Fox Mulder.”

Scully leaned up towards him like the neck of a crane. She now held his hand with both of her own, stroking it gently. “Are you saying you wanted more children? Even with adopting Samantha’s children?”

Just then the heavy door of the hospital room squealed open and the oblivious doctor came back in. He looked startled as he took in their drawn features. “Am I disturbing you?”

“No,” Scully replied, looking at Mulder, her eyes begging him to show an emotion.“We’re finished.”

The doctor stared at his clipboard, flipped a couple pages, then closed the file. “My shift ended and I wanted to check in one last time before I left. Anything else you might need?”

“A vasectomy?” Mulder replied with a crooked grin.


	12. Clam in High Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seven months have passed and all is well at the Scully/Mulder Unremarkable house. Molly is ready to have her baby any minute and Scully is close behind. Samantha's kids are warming up to their new home and Maggie is being Maggie.
> 
> If the title of the chapter has you curious: Hide tide is when clams are free from the attentions of predators and is the happiest of times in the bivalve mollusk world. And such is the way at Sculderhouse. Lol. Yes, I've run out of shows worth watching on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO, and I'm down to watching National Geographic on Disney+  
> I have the tv on as I clean so random bits penetrate my brain sometimes.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50133528548/in/dateposted/)

**7 months later...**

“Dinner’s served,” William said, coming into the living room to usher Molly and his parents to eat. “Unless you’d like to eat here?”

“No, we’ll come to the table,” Scully said, holding Maggie’s hand and ushering in Molly and Mulder, calling Jenn, Miri, and Finn to come eat. 

Everyone sat down, William was already seated, pulling his napkin into his lap. He looked up at his parents and grinned broadly. Molly nodded at him and with one hand on her belly and a little maneuvering got her nine month pregnant body into the chair. 

“I made pot roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions. An easy supper my mom taught me how to make. Enjoy guys,” William said and reached for the bowl of potatoes.

“Chew it slowly, Maggie,” Mulder and Scully cautioned simultaneously as she picked up a small chunk of beef with her fingers and popped it into her mouth. 

William rolled his eyes and passed Molly a knowing glance at their stereophonic adulting. Finn wasn’t paying any attention at all, busy shoveling his food into his mouth, while Miri and Jenn were more careful, savoring each bite, separating the carrots from the beef.

Maggie snuck some beef under the table to her dog happily wagging his wide tail, tickling her leg. Mulder noticed but kept it quiet, sharing a knowing glance at her daughter. She only laughed and covered her mouth with her index finger. 

“This is delicious, William,” Mulder commented. “Better than what I could do at your age.”

“Did they have electricity for the crockpots back then?” William joked back.

Mulder washed the dishes after the meal and William hung back to help. Molly and Scully went into the living room to select the evening’s movie. 

“Dad?” William asked Mulder who was up to his elbows in hot soapy water. 

“Yeah,” Mulder answered, storing the meal in several single serve containers like Scully taught him. This long lesson occurred after she came home one day to find his sandwich haphazardly tossed into the fridge next to open Chinese food containers and some other foil wrapped unidentified leftovers.

“Mom looks so tired, is she doing okay?” William prodded.

“The doctor keeps giving her good reports. She’s very high risk, but she’s taking care.” Mulder stacked two containers on the refrigerator shelf and the rest in the freezer. “It must be weird for you to be having a kid at the same time your mom is pregnant herself?”

“Yeah, but at the same time, more normal than usual?” William said, honestly.

Mulder gave him a one-armed hug and kissed his temple. “Come on, I’ve got a secret stash of ice cream the women haven’t found yet. ”

*

When Scully woke, the room was dark and her head was leaning against Mulder’s shoulder. She must have fallen asleep during the movie because the screen saver played on the tv and the popcorn bowl was empty. William had one leg over the arm of the loveseat, his head partly on what was left of Molly’s lap. Maggie was curled up with her thumb in her mouth on the other side of her daddy, while Jenn and Miri were sleeping on the floor on top of one blanket, and Finn on the other. Scully arranged the blankets over each one of her children, fixing their locks, tucking them in. After going to the bathroom, she came back and sat back on the couch, rubbing her hand over her 5 month pregnant self and drifted off again.

“Mom! Mom!” 

Scully’s heart leaped into her throat. She stood from the couch before she was even able to focus and she felt instantly dizzy. “What?!” Scully exclaimed, the ends of her fingers still numb.

“It’s Molly, she’s having the baby!”

Scully grabbed William by the arms as before he hyperventilated. “Deep breath, William. We’re here. She’s not having it right this second. We have time. Get Molly’s bag and your dad will start the car.”

Once all eight were loaded into the car, Scully got in and whispered to Mulder. “I’m fairly certain she’s not in labor, but she needs to see a doctor.”

*

The hour it took to get back the test results was excruciating. Scully could feel her ankles swelling and her nerves were on edge. Finally, the doctor called her to Molly’s room. 

“I have the test results,” he said to Molly. “I think the overall stress of having the baby might have brought on the contractions. You’re borderline anemic so I’ll prescribe you an iron supplement.” He looked at Scully then cleared his throat and continued, “The pH in utero is a little out of normal range, so I’d like to do another test in a week.”

“Is that dangerous?” William asked.

“It’s something we need to keep an eye on,” the doctor answered. “During the last checkup it was in the normal range, so it’s a watchout for now.”

“Any genetic abnormalities?” Scully asked, a knot forming as she rubbed her own stomach.

“No,” said the doctor. “She is healthy. Slightly underweight for nine months, but not a concern.”

“Underweight?” Molly looked down at her stomach. “So that’s more me than…”

“Than her? There is no need for concern at this point. She may come a week late, that’s all.”

“Okay.” Molly pushed out of the chair. “I’m ready to go home.”

**One week later..**

“Are you happy, Mulder?” Scully asked, wrapped inside his warm arms, watching the trees blowing in the early morning hues.

“Absolutely,” he breathed in her ear. “Isn’t it obvious?”

She felt his smile against her cheek and its glow lit up her insides. “A little,” she answered playfully. 

“Are you asking me because of the baby?” Mulder asked delicately.

Scully paused, thinking about adopting Samantha’s children, Maggie and William, the grandchild on the way and their own baby soon to enter this world. All with Mulder retired and herself teaching and heading up the new Discovery Science Division. They were both genuinely supportive of each other’s career and family decisions but still she inquired, “Do you have regrets?”

“No,” Mulder said quickly and hotly into her ear. “When we were younger, I may have told you of my desires to live out here, but my dreams, when I thought of the childhood myself and Samantha had, included watching my own children grow up that way. It was something I thought was always a dream, but in that dream, we had enough to form our own baseball team.” 

“We?” Scully questioned. “You had included me in part of that dream? Back then? But Mulder, we were simply partners..” 

“We were never simply anything, Scully,” Mulder snuggled in closer, closing the gaps, leaving her questions lingering in the air. 

The warm press of Mulder’s body to Scully’s back, his hand sliding over her heated skin, cupping over her mound, his fingers entering where desire called him, left her with enough answers to satisfy. 

“Muuulderr,” Scully mumbled, squeezing her eyes tightly shut, curling, pressing, straining against his hand, her ass grinding against his length. “Please,” she whispered, strung as tight as a guitar string, begging for release, recalling that conversation was lost on them.

Warm breath whispered across her cheek. “You are so fucking sexy.”

The pressure between her legs increased. Her toes curled. She arched as he used his hand to cover a sensitive breast. His finger pushed harder against the coiling sensations, moving faster. Scully gasped and cried out softly in relief as Mulder covered her cheek and neck in kisses. 

Sighing, she turned her head to meet his lips. “I want you inside me,” she growled.

Mulder slid her underwear down her silken legs with a rough hand, covered her with his body and mindfully pushed inside. Her pregnancy hormones had her arousal lingering in a riotous mess, and Mulder’s strong cock easily wrestled another orgasm from her body. Long gone were the days when she was pregnant with William and her lover was a warm blanket, soft cushion, or designated pillow.

**Later that day...**

“I love Maggie, William, but being nine months pregnant and babysitting for four kids?” Molly complained.

“I told you, I’ll be here too.”

“So, I’ll have five kids,” Molly joked as they approached the house. The front door opened. Molly backed up into William, only to stop in surprise as she recognized, “Monica!”

“Yep. Glad you could make it,” Monica smiled, giving her a big bear hug.

It took a moment for Molly’s eyes to adjust as she entered the darkened house. Before she could fully do so, light and figures burst all around her. “Surprise!”

“What the--?” Molly stared at Gibson, coming from behind a wall. Behind her, Doggett, Kyle, and Charlie rose from behind a counter. Elsewhere around the spacious room, other friends from school rose to their feet and clapped.

“It’s your baby shower,” Monica said. “…we’ve got presents and some celebrating to do.”

“Dana. Mom.” Molly saw the cake, the streamers and balloons, and all the smiling faces. And burst into tears.

Scully’s face crumbled with emotion as well. Mulder helped her sit back down.

“Scully, please-please don’t do that,” Mulder groused, referring to her tears. “Or you’re going to make me start.”

Molly busily wiped her own eyes. “Guys, this is… really… great. But…” She saw a bassinet with a big pink bow on it and a mobile dangling above it. “All this stuff isn’t going to fit in the dorm.”

Shaking her head, Mulder beamed. “This house is yours too. We have enough land to build a small house in the back and until then we can set up the room down here for you, William, and the baby, and…” Mulder trailed off. “You’re family.”

“You’re inviting us to live here?” Molly’s eyes widened as she rubbed her belly.

“There’s plenty of room, lots of land, and you can decorate your room however,” Scully started.

Molly burst into tears again. “I can’t believe you would do all this for us.” She looked over at her mom.

“Your mother can stay whenever she wants,” Scully added quickly.

“Or if you want to stay with her until the house is built, you can come visit whenever,” Mulder said, glancing at Scully. 

“Let’s open the presents,” William said. “I want to know what we got.”

Baby clothes, diapers, blankets, toys, covered the house, along with bows, bags, boxes and wrapping paper. Molly wiped her eyes and laughed at her raw emotions as gift after gift was placed on her lap. 

**Later that week at Finn’s Football (Soccer) game...**

“Hey, Aunt Dana. Ma!!” Out on the field, bouncing on his new cleats, Finn waved to them. Mulder waved back just as he, Maggie, and Scully sat down in the bleachers. The team bench held Finn’s teammates and the coach, none other than John Doggett. He waved at them, then blew his whistle to bring the kids in for a huddle.

“Finn looks happy,” Scully said, shifting her weight, trying to get comfortable which was all but impossible on the aluminum bench.

“I think so too,” Mulder agreed. “You need some water?” 

Scully nodded, but Mulder hit her with a “be right back,” before she had a chance to answer.

Maggie sucked on a pretzel and Scully sipped at her water, eyes riveted to Finn running a defense pattern, trying to steal the ball from a leggy boy who had what Scully guessed to be about ten pounds over Finn. She saw the leg move back and winced as she sensed what was coming. “Finn! Jump!” she yelled.

He didn’t jump, but his attention jerked away from the other boy and that tripped him over his own feet. Instead of being kicked in the shin by the sweeping side motion that the other boy was using to pass the ball, Finn took the ball directly into his stomach, and dropped to the ground, winded.

“Finny!” Maggie screamed as she leaped to her feet beside Scully.

“He’ll be fine,” Mulder said, forestalling Scully with a hand on her shoulder, holding her off the field as two of the sports trainers, high school seniors, went out to assess Finn’s condition. Scrappy kid was already working his way back to his feet, though at the moment he was only shakily rising to his hands and knees.“If you hadn’t distracted him, the other kid would’ve swiped his leg,” Mulder said, defending her before she accused herself of being to blame. “Probably would have broken it.”

Activity on the field drew both of their awareness away from each other to see Finn waving at them between crouching over his knees and drawing deep breaths. He mouthed “I’m OK” at Scully and threw up his right hand with three fingers upward and forefinger and thumb forming an ‘o’.

He’s all right,” Scully sighed in relief.

“Yes, he is.” Mulder sounded just as winded as Finn looked. “You knew that would happen?”

“Premonition,” Scully offered up reluctantly.

Mulder watched Scully as she looked away from Mulder to watch Finn take the field again. Mulder stroked her finely boned hand with a lingering touch, both accepting he needed the connection and pleased Scully allowed it.

As the evening began to encroach on the day, Mulder became an indistinct silhouette and Scully watched him almost more than the game itself. She heard the buzzer sound the end of the game, Finn’s team had won 3-1, and steadily made her way to her feet, turning aside as Finn ran up, greeting Mulder first with a full-bodied hug. She stole a glance over her shoulder as she left with Maggie to watch Mulder’s head drop on top of Finn’s and his eyes close in such a divine image of pleasure it was almost angelic.

“I can’t believe you distracted me,” Finn said, drawing Scully’s full attention. Mulder’s arm still hung around his shoulder.

“You gotta watch those sweep kicks, kid,” Mulder said.

“I was trying to steal the ball.”

“You almost wound up with a broken foot,” Scully chided him.

Finn’s grimace was answer enough. He looked up at Mulder, offering a smile of reassurance. “It really wasn’t that bad.” He even kicked out his left foot and wriggled it for Scully. “See?”

Mulder nodded. “Yes, but mind Aunt Dana’s warning. She’s likely right. You have to be careful.”

“ohkaay. I’m hungry. Can we find some food?” Finn asked.

“You’re hungry?” Scully could tell Mulder was trying to sound shocked, but he sounded more amused. “This is your influence,” Mulder said to Scully. 

“I don’t know,” Scully debated. “I think he’s grown at least three inches in the past four months.” Mulder ruffled Finn’s hair as Finn smiled back at Mulder, his cheeks rosy with embarrassment .


	13. Grandparents

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50142083076/in/dateposted/)

Scully sighed and sat down. God, her feet were killing her. She started to reach for her shoes only to stop when she felt a stitch in her side. She glared at the shoe, just out of arm’s length, then at the untucked tail of her roomiest button-down shirt which hid the fact that she had finally had to forego even unbuttoned jeans in favor of pants with an elastic waistband. Fortunately, her scrubs at work were already elastic.

“Something wrong?” Mulder asked as he entered the room.

Expelling another breath, Scully twisted up her lips in Mulder’s direction. She forced a smile she didn’t really feel. “Nah, just peachy.”

Peaches. Mmm. No, she thought. Chocolate would be better. Melted on ice cream. Scully closed her eyes, recalling the desert last night that Mulder had paraded in from the kitchen after Scully swore she couldn’t eat another bite. Her mouth watered at the memory and she swallowed hard.

“Are you in pain?” Mulder asked.

Blinking out of her daydream, Scully shook her head. “What? No.”

“Then why are you squirming and moving so much?” Mulder said, doing his own little twist.

Scully relented. “My feet hurt, and I’m a little hungry.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Mulder asked with a hopeful look.

Scully considered her feet once more. “Help me get these boots off. I can’t sit still any longer.”

Mulder quickly knelt at Scully’s feet. He felt guilty that she was pregnant and working as a doctor and scientist while he stayed at home, retired, taking care of the kids. Even though he knew it was necessary and he enjoyed it, every once in a while he felt Scully carried more of the burden than he did. They had discussed at length her decision to take the promotion to Director of the Discovery Science Division at Quantico. It had been created with her in mind and allowed her the freedom to remain a practicing physician. Still, every now and then he thought of what a thrill one more case might be. Perhaps when he started holding his teaching seminars in the spring opportunities might arise, but that was a conversation for another day.

Mulder slid off the last boot and as it tumbled onto the floor, Scully cried out, “Oh, that’s incredible,” then pressed her toes onto the cool wooden floor boards. 

Mulder grinned. His ego would have to wrestle with him another day. “We better get to lamaze class before we’re late. I hate showing up late with everyone all sprawled all over the floor.” 

***

Scully looked up from her position in front of Mulder on the mat, the movement digging Mulder’s knees into Scully’s lower back. She could imagine when she was in pain, it being a really helpful feeling, but right now it was triggering her need to pee rather urgently. “Mulder, please…”

Mulder looked down at Scully and pulled his knees back with a scooting motion that meant his hands tugged at Scully’s shoulders. Scully braced herself on her own elbows and pulled free of Mulder’s grip, as they both tried to get comfortable again on the room’s floor covered in interlocking exercise mats, like a gymnastics class might have, only they smelled like old tires.

“Better?” Mulder asked against her ear. The instructor, actually looking like a gym teacher in a blue and silver workout suit, continued to give directions for the lamaze coaches to help their pregnant partners find that comfortable position on the floor.

“Better,” Scully winced as Mulder dug his fingers into Scully’s mid-back when the instructor told them to “find the knots and work them out.” 

“Ow, hey, I don’t currently have any knots there,” Scully winced under her breath.

“Sorry. Does it hurt anywhere in particular?” Mulder asked.

Scully shook her head, pushing herself into a more comfortable position on her hands, her knees bent up and around her belly.

“Okay, now that we’re all situated...” the instructor said, interrupting their conversation, “We’re going to identify all the muscles involved first, so we can feel if something is wrong.”

Scully concentrated, tightening and loosening areas of her lower body as instructed, while Mulder laid his hands on those same places to feel the muscles’ responses. His green eyes darted to hers looking for confirmation, reassurance, or just plain begging for approval. It began to annoy her, so she closed her eyes, going only on feel.

“Tighten, relax. Okay. Next one,” the instructor called out. 

Scully felt a sharp twinge and yelped.

“Sorry,” Mulder said.

“Wait until I let go,” Scully snapped.

“I thought you had.”

“Well, I didn’t,” Scully returned sourly.

“Everything all right here?” Scully’s eyes flew open to find the instructor crouched about two feet away, staring from Mulder to her.

“Yes.” Mulder’s bright positivity and Scully’s dull acknowledgement were in almost perfectly synchronized harmony. 

“You need to talk to each other,” he said. His face, kinda mousy and round, scrunched up in a smile. Scully gamely smiled back, but then another twinge pulled at her upper thigh and she grimaced.

Mulder was silent and Scully certainly wasn’t going to say anything until he did. Finally she couldn’t hold back and gasped, lurching and grabbing the charley horse forming in her thigh. “Ah!”

Mulder looked down at the muscle clearly rippling and started to massage it. The pain worsened and Scully rolled away, curling in but unable, due to her dimensions, to grab the leg and work out the issue for herself. “Shit.” She rolled until her belly didn’t allow her to roll further and pushed to her hands, dragging her uncooperative leg, still spasming, behind her. She pulled herself into a chair along the wall and gulped air to slow her breathing and try to block the pain.

Having followed, Mulder sat beside her, patting her hand, looking helpless. The instructor had also come over. Scully shook her head and nodded him away. “I’ll be fine. Just a minute, just a cramp. Gimme a sec.” She wiped ineffectually at the tears threatening at the corners of her eyes. Instead of leaving, the man pulled her thigh between his big hands and laid them broadly and flatly against the twisting muscle. As a result of tiny circular motions, Scully finally felt the dagger-like pain recede.

“Nerve got pinched,” he said. “When that happens,” he directed his words to Mulder, “you have to help her roll off the compressed point, free the nerve, get circulation back.”

Mulder buried his tongue in his cheek, his eyes becoming slits as he snarled at the instructor leaving to help someone else. He noticed Scully’s eyes closed in defeat and sent his hands to her shoulders. “It’ll get better. I don’t remember it being this hard last time,” he murmured.

“Mulder, we’re older--” Scully said, placing a hand over Mulder’s at her shoulder. “Let’s just… breathe...okay? Just… a little... calm... breathing.”

Mulder nodded. “Unless you need more men groping your leg. I think the guy over there runs a pizza place and I know how much of a sucker you are for the pepperoni.” 

Scully passed him a jovial glare before closing her eyes and starting to count her heartbeats, centering herself, but even that was interrupted by Scully’s phone.

Scully picked it up and answered. “Ok. Yes, William. William, we’ll be right there. William, relax, we’re on our way. Yes. Okay. Love you.”

“What is it?” Mulder asked, deeply concerned and trying not to panic.

“Molly is in labor for real this time,” Scully replied. “We’ve got to meet them at the hospital.”

* 

“Hey, Grams, Grampa!” William said as they came rushing into the waiting room.

“Is the baby here already?” Mulder asked and William laughed. 

“No. Soon,” William replied. “The Doc says she’s almost fully dilated.” 

Scully left Mulder in the waiting room to read old senseless magazines, pace and sweat it out for two hours. 

Chatting on the phone to Charlie, Doggett, and with gritted teeth, Bill, got old fast. Finally a nurse came to escort Mulder to Molly’s room. When he entered, Scully was holding their granddaughter. She lifted her gaze to meet Mulder’s. There was a long pause as they took each other’s measure. They said nothing, but there was a wide, shared, glowing smile as she lowered her gaze back to the baby.


	14. Fishy Fishy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scully and Mulder attend more Lamaze. Maggie holds her niece for the first time. Mulder takes Maggie to the Aquarium.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50207292507/in/photostream/)

Maggie waited for her mother, incessantly kicking at the bottom of the chair as her legs swung impatiently. She kneaded at the upholstery in a nervous cadence. When Scully finally entered the living room with her grandchild, after a quick diaper change, Maggie clapped with joy.

Carefully, Scully positioned Maggie on the chair and demonstrated to her how to hold the new baby. “I be gentle, Mommy,” Maggie reassured her.

Mulder, following behind Scully, wanted to drink this moment in, taking some pics of his little girl holding his first grandchild. Maggie’s eyes were wide and more brilliant than usual watching the baby in her arms. A proud smile across her face, with her strawberry locks falling in her eyes, filled him with a sunshine Mulder only felt with her. Maggie was delicate, meticulous and attentive, doing exactly as her mother instructed. She lifted her eyes to meet her father’s and her smile somehow widened. There was a communication between them that had no need for words. Mulder thought his heart might burst. For as long as he lived, he’d never known a love like what he had with his little girl. 

His newborn grandchild’s tiny toes peeked from the blanket and she kicked in a jagged motion, her head a crazy mass of brown curls with cowlicks that resembled his own when he was young. She wobbled against Maggie’s supporting hand, starting to fret and cry. Mulder gently took her from Maggie, bringing her to his shoulder where she rested her head with a thumb in her mouth.  _ Another girl to melt my heart and ruin me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, _ he thought as he took a big whiff of new baby smell.

**One hour later Molly returned to the Unremarkable House to watch the children while Mulder and Scully washed clothes.**

“So,” Mulder said as he worked with Scully on what now seemed with all the kids in the house, an endless pile of laundry. “How do you know the difference between when you’re in labor or something different?”

“The breathing,” she said, noticing how her own had sped up a little as she raised her eyes to meet Mulder’s.

“When the contractions are coming, it’ll be a little hard here,” Scully said, placing her own hand across her abdomen. “Well, a lot hard actually, like someone is squeezing my guts in a vice.”

Scully watched Mulder’s face as his gaze dropped to study Scully’s midsection. His concentration made Scully’s stomach flutter. She reached out tentatively for Mulder’s hand. “Here,” she tightened the muscles intentionally, hoping that it would be enough.

Mulder turned his palm out and his long warm fingers pressed lightly against her abdomen. Mulder closed his eyes, breathing quietly. Scully found it relaxing, closing her own eyes. “Ah, yeah, I can feel the muscles,” he said.

He opened his eyes and looked deeply into her own. She felt her pulse increase as his lips parted. Up on her toes, she leaned into him, as close as she could get with their unborn baby between them. His kiss was soft and sensual. Arousing, leaving her body yearning for more as he pulled away.

Scully felt a twinge and rolled her knuckles into the tight pain-filled muscles at the small of her back. Her groan of relief was interrupted by a surprised gasp when she felt Mulder’s hands push aside her own, delivering an intense massage to the tight muscles.

“That... is my job,” Mulder said. He watched Scully’s face closely while he let his thumbs and knuckles push through to the deeper muscle layers to relieve her tension.

He smiled when Scully’s gasp became a happy sigh. Over the last few weeks he was beginning to feel quite accomplished in the way he was able to accurately interpret the various sounds. His attention to detail finding yet another use away from crime scenes and the supernatural.

**Early Morning the Following Day**

Mulder sat at his desk, typing at his computer. A brief moment of cherished silence while the kids played outside and Maggie took her afternoon nap. A publisher had already been secured. This was not his memoirs or tutorials on X-Files. This book was titled: Living with Loss without Closure. It detailed the life he shared with his sister, accounts of his sister’s abduction, and the years following, and how he’s learned to have depression and happiness coexist. He shuffled his notes and turned to tack a picture to the wall when he heard the sound of car tires over their gravel driveway.

Mulder met the man with red peppered hair that got out of the late modeled caravan. Through the car window, Mulder could see the children in the back playing with their Nintendo Switch. The young man, only a few years older than William, held out his hand. “Mulder, it’s me. Matthew Scully. Bill’s son. I told Aunt Dana I’d be by to visit. I wanted to meet the new baby.”

It took Mulder a minute, standing there on the cool winter’s day, before he recognized Matthew. “Of course, Matt, come on in with your family, William and Molly are in the back.”

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50206928171/in/dateposted/)  


**Two Hours Later, Mulder kept his promise and him and Maggie had a father/daughter date at the aquarium.**

Mulder crouched so their eyes could meet, tucking a mischievous scarlet hair behind Maggie’s ear. With a smile that reached from his lips to her eyes he said, "See in the water, M? Do you see the stars?"

She nodded and grinned, for there were purple stars laying on the floor inside the large fish tank, every bit as beautiful as those bright friends of the moon. Maggie nodded wildly, with arms as lively as waving sea-grass. "They’re fishy stars, Daddy?"

Mulder laughed, "They sure are; those are starfish.”

Maggie pointed towards the ceiling, her whole body leaning the other way for emphasis. Then with full force let her arm drop. “They fell.” Then laughed again enthusiastically as she hopped about.

Mulder laughed gingerly, smiling at her soft heart and not wanting to get too technical about the difference between fish and marine invertebrates, “No M, they come from the ocean. The lady will let you reach in and touch them if you’re real careful."

Maggie nodded again and Mulder hoisted her up. From the top of the tank she could see the golden starfish. It made Maggie giggle and she pointed. “Sandy fishy.”

Mulder whispered in her ear as she reached into the tank and pet the starfish and a large horseshoe crab. “They have mommy’s and daddy’s just like you.”

Her hand sifted through the grains of sand and her fingers brushed over the hard bumps of a tiny red and pink starfish. 

“Pwetty like flowers,” Maggie said and looked back at her father for approval.

Mulder smiled. “You know, you were once a flower-fairy. I found you in a meadow.”

If a child’s expression could imitate an adult’s, Maggie nailed her mother’s patented look of disbelief. “No flower fairway! I was in Mommy’s tummy!”

“You did?” Mulder said. “Well, the starfish can wiggle and move just like a tickled Maggie.”

Maggie burst into a fit of laughter, jerking her whole body even before he touched her belly and it made him laugh with her.

Mulder set her down and she hung and stretched, swinging on the walk railing. “Can we see the big sharks now Daddy?”

Mulder grasped her little hand in his. “Let’s go.”

Maggie’s head touched her back, looking mystified as she gripped Mulder’s fingers tighter and stood with him on the people mover going through the glass tunnel, sharks, giant stingrays, and sea turtles swimming all around them.

“Die sharky!!” Maggie shouted when one swam by.

Mulder stiffened, hoping no one overheard his daughter, fearful that a little bit of her grandfather’s genes might have snuck into muddy her perfection. 

“Why should the sharks die, M?”

“They’re mean, daddy,” she said like it was the most logical thing in the world.

“Maggie, all creatures exist for a reason. The shark is millions of years of evolution. It gives life by controlling other large predators. A shark is as important to the ocean as a bobcat or fox is to the forest. Even a wolf. They protect the smaller creatures and the plants, by keeping the other mean fish to low numbers. So, maybe they aren’t so bad after all.”

Mulder noticed a number of children gathering to listen. Maggie puffed her chest out as if to say, yes, this is my daddy. “I like sharks, Daddy.”

“Can you find the nurse shark?” Mulder asked. “When they eat they sound like a baby sucking a bottle.” Mulder imitated the sound extending his lips and Maggie laughed. “They have those two big teeth hanging out.”

Just as he said it, two nurse sharks smoothly swam above them rocking their tail. Maggie cried out, “There Daddy! There! See! See!”

Mulder picked her up and gave her a hug. “M, you are too smart for me.”

The aquarium had Maggie as excited as Mulder hoped. She wanted to stop for a long time for some tanks, run back to see others for another glimpse, or race on to the turtles. She wanted to cut across the aisle when something caught her eye and try to see the crab's claws up close. 

“Where’s fishies, Daddy?” Maggie asked curiously.

“This is coral M. They are hiding. You have to stay very still and stare and only then they won’t be afraid to come out.”

Frozen in place she observed for a few minutes, then like magic she began to see something move. “Look, Daddy!!” she screamed in glee; then she remembered to use her inside voice and whispered, “I found the fishies and a horsey.”

Mulder looked and deep in the coral, barely in view was a dusty pink pygmy seahorse with its tail wrapped around the coral reminding him of Maggie when she was little, curling her hand around his finger. He hugged his daughter a little tighter, giving her a big kiss.

The final treat of the day was the penguin parade, Mulder made sure they were there on one of the two days of the week the handlers let the birds out. Maggie’s eyes once again lit up with happiness watching the various sizes and species. Aquarium staff did their best to herd the wadling mass of webbed feet, no easy feat as the penguins were as curious about the onlookers as the onlookers were about the penguins.

Mulder and Maggie followed the marching birds to the door where they would make their exit. One especially curious little Humboldt penguin escaped the watchful eyes and waddled over into the crowd. An elderly couple smiled and inclined their heads towards Maggie, smiled and spoke. “She is just precious.”

Mulder glanced down at Maggie, still entranced by the penguins, before turning his attention back to the couple. “Thank you, I think so too.”

The little bird finally stood next to Maggie and leaned up against her leg almost snuggling. Maggie giggled and touched its head giving its sleek feathers a long pet. 

“Hello,” she whispered to the bird. It arched its neck enjoying the attention and flapped its wings. When the left wing extended, it was noticeably bent at an awkward angle. Curious, Maggie gently stroked the favored wing. The bird ruffled and she knew it was hurt. Mulder looked down and saw Maggie petting the white and black bird just as a voice rang out.

“There you are, George!” The aquarium employee smiled at Maggie and Mulder before gently ushering the little bird back to the group. It waddled and hopped away, its wings suddenly in perfect symmetry. 

“Bye, George,” Maggie waved and sang. 

“Would you like to pick out a gift for your new niece, M? We can look in the gift shop.” Thinking Maggie might be getting a little tired, Mulder scooped her up and she laid her head on his shoulder. Maggie played with the locks of his hair, a little long for his liking, until they reached the gift shop, then her head snapped up with interest. “Down, Daddy...pwease.”

Chuckling, Mulder set her down, her eyes as big as saucers as she spun around looking at all the stuffed toys. “Pick one, M.” She slowly made her way around the displays, touching a blue whale, a gray shark, a purple octopus in a hat, a green turtle, until she finally stopped at the selection of penguins.

“Which one M? You want a penguin?” Maggie gently picked up a Humboldt penguin about 6” tall and then put it back down with a little pat. Her eyes roved over the selection one more time until she picked up a pink and white penguin and handed it to her daddy. Mulder squatted down to meet her eyes. Sometimes he felt his little girl had a wisdom within her larger than all of them put together. 

“M, honey? Would you like a penguin too?” The brightness of her smile, the glitter in her eyes burst with a joy so pure Mulder gasped. She skipped back a step and with her penguin tucked against her chest wrapped her hand around Mulder’s finger once again. 

Walking out to the car Mulder asked, “What are you going to name him, M?” Mulder actually thought he knew the answer already. Maggie craned her neck and smiled at him, snuggling her new friend and said, “Georgie.”

**Several hours later...**

“Why are you still here?” Mulder asked as he entered Scully’s office, sporting his guest badge, looking around for everything that had changed since he was last there. Outside the sun was quickly heading for the horizon.

“I’m just completing some paperwork. I’m done for the day,” Scully returned, powering down her computer.

“I fed Maggie, and Molly’s mother and brother are watching the tribe. Matthew came by with his family to meet our grandchild. He was disappointed he missed you. Said he’d be by again tomorrow.” Mulder set a small bag down on her desk. “Brought you a wrap.”

Scully looked at the food. Her throat moved spasmodically and her eyes squeezed tightly shut. She shook her head.

“You waited too long to eat,” Mulder realized. “Have you eaten anything today at all?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “I’ll get you some water.” 

He left the office before Scully could protest. When he returned with a paper cup from the water dispenser, he found Scully reflexively swallowing down an urge to throw up while rubbing her temples.

“Here.” Mulder walked around to her chair and crouched, placing a hand at her knee. Looking up, he watched closely as Scully sipped at the water.

“I’m fine,” Scully protested.

“Not what it looked like to me,” Mulder said, his eyes holding his concern. “You know you have to eat something every couple of hours.”

Scully held up her medical badge. “I know. I know.” She closed her eyes and took a longer sip from the paper cup, finally crumpling it in her fist. She relaxed back in her chair, resting her hands with the cup, atop her very pregnant belly.

As though magnetically drawn to it, Mulder’s warm caring hand settled on the right side of Scully’s abdominals. He felt her muscles ripple underneath his palm, then suddenly turn steel-hard. Scully’s face scrunched and her hand joined Mulder’s.

“Has this happened before?” Mulder asked.

“A couple times,” Scully admitted. She winced following her words and Mulder saw the motion happen again. This time both of them felt the muscle jolt at the end of the squeezing.

“Oh, God, this one definitely likes sports. Please rest that little foot,” Scully pleaded. Her head leaned back and both hands began rubbing at the spot while Mulder couldn’t decide which was more important, to watch Scully’s face, or her stomach.

“Perhaps,” Mulder suggested to take Scully’s mind off the discomfort, “Your child is overtired and hungry like his mother.” He pressed his lips to her belly and sent a tiny kiss there. “How about giving mommy a break little man,” he said into her belly.

Both their fingers rubbed at the same spot. Mulder rolled his fingers outward, searching for the edge of the muscle fibers to ease Scully’s pain. He focused on slowly circling on the muscles with his fingers while Scully inhaled and exhaled with carefully regulated breaths. She brought her hands to her face and rolled the heels of her palms into her eyes.

“Headache?” Mulder asked. When Scully nodded again, starting to push to her feet, Mulder added, “I’ll take you home.”

“It’s a class night,” Scully reminded him.

“We will practice at home,” Mulder said firmly, sending a kiss to her forehead.

“You know we’re supposed to attend all the classes,” Scully replied back weakly.

“We will reschedule. You are in need of rest and food.”

Scully lowered her hands from her temples and passed him a sly grin. “You sure are testy when I’m hungry. Let’s go home.”

Mulder only pursed his lips and laughed. 

**Early morning...**

Scully rolled over slowly, pushing the large pillows out from between her thighs and breasts. She bit her lip, looking around the darkness. Mulder wasn’t there.

Pressing her lips into a thin line, Scully tried to listen for sounds in the rest of the house. When she heard nothing, she crawled backward off the mattress until her belly stopped being supported. The ache from the evening before was now a mere twinge. Mulder’s magic hands, the dark wizard, performing miracles again, allowing her to sleep through most of the night.

Scully peeked in Maggie’s room and saw her asleep in her bed, while Jen and Miri slept in the twin beds against the wall. She quietly closed the door and headed to the first floor. There, illuminated by the moonlight creeping through the blinds, Scully found Mulder, on the couch, with his granddaughter sleeping soundly on his chest. 

He had his head on a throw pillow while his feet tucked under at the other end. His eyes were closed, chest expanding and contracting peacefully, barely restrained by the same plain gray shirt he had worn the night before. The baby rocked on top to his rhythm. 

The sight pulled at Scully’s heart and her eyes instantly welled. Slowly, she made her way out to the kitchen, hesitating and turning by the invisible partition between the living room and kitchen table, to give one last glance back, allowing the warm glow of happiness to fill her insides.

Surprises awaited her in the kitchen. The dishes were washed, food put away, and counters spotless. She shook her head. Between Molly’s mother and Kyle, they took care of everything.


	15. One More for the Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scully goes into labor.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50220445606/in/dateposted/)

“Now, hopefully, you’ve been practicing your breathing,” the instructor said.

The Lamaze instructor was looking down at Mulder and Scully from over the back of a chair he had straddled as they sat on the floormats. There was no need for him to walk around today. After all, they were his only students in the room.

“The woman is a workaholic,” Mulder replied.

Mulder turned his head to see Scully smiling crookedly at him. He looked away from her bright blue oceans down to the shoulder almost tucked into his own chest. Scully had gone from wearing heels and pantsuits, to a t-shirt and sweatpants similar to Mulder’s. 

“The more you practice, the more prepared you’ll be,” Scully stated.

“You’ll both be,” Chester emphasized. “It has to be second nature. For both of you. Remember, she’ll be caught up in what her body is screaming, she’ll forget --”

“To eat. Like yesterday.” Mulder softened the reproving comment by maintaining his even voice.

As he had wanted to happen, instead of being offended or angry, Scully just dropped her head against Mulder’s collarbone and groaned. “Tattletale.”

“You guys ready?” the instructor asked, not amused by either of them.

Mulder heard Scully’s murmur of assent and saw her roll her shoulder. Reaching for the muscle, Mulder laid his palm against it and rubbed in small circles. The murmur shifted to a hum of happiness.

Mulder pulled his eyes away from Scully to see the instructor watching them. “What are we working on today?” the instructor asked, testing Mulder.

“Holding her back from pushing,” Mulder replied.

“Why?” the instructor prodded further. “Let Mulder answer this one Dana.”

“Sometimes it isn’t the right moment to push. You don’t want to be doing it when the doctor’s listening for distress or if he needs to adjust the baby’s position. The urge will be there, but it’s not a good time.”

The instructor smiled and reached out, placing his hand on Scully’s leg. Mulder gave a face, but didn’t comment. “Tighten this muscle for me,” he told her.

Scully complied. “Hold it,” he said firmly though he didn’t remove his hand. “Okay Mulder, the doctor said she’s not dilated fully. She has to stop pushing. Loosen her muscles.”

“Scully, don’t push,” he said in his unconvincing monotone.

The instructor shook his head. “Dana’s covered in sweat. She’s had a backache all day. She hasn’t eaten since last night. She’s tired. And she’s crying. Keep it tight, Mulder. Focus. Dana has this.” After a moment the instructor added, observing Mulder, “Better.”

“Scully and I are each half of the team,” Mulder said. “Just like with work, just like with the kids.”

“We share everything,” Scully said warmly, earnestly, staring longingly into his gaze.

“Brilliant,” the instructor interrupted, as Mulder brushed Scully’s fallen hair from her face as she prepared to say something.

“What?” Scully and Mulder both blurted at the same time, with the same indignation.

“You distracted her,” the instructor explained. “Neither of you raised your voice. And Dana never tensed further.” Mulder watched him pat Scully’s leg. He had an irrational thought of making him remove his hand.  _ She’s mine, just as I am hers. I’ll do all the touching, thank you _ . Mulder saw Scully pass him a sideways glance letting him know she appreciated his irritation.

“Have you been through Lamaze before?” the instructor asked, squeezing Scully’s leg sharply, causing her to wince. Mulder glared at him.

“Twice,” Scully clarified. “William and Maggie.”

“Keep going,” the instructor said, speaking to Mulder. “Look at her. So you guys already have other children. This should be easy.”

“I was not present when Scully gave birth to William,” Mulder said solemnly.

The instructor looked at Scully. “He wasn’t? How come?”

“It’s a long story,” they said in unison. Scully winced and grasped Mulder’s thigh, digging in with her fingernails.

Mulder rubbed Scully’s shoulder, heading off the memories he could see entering Scully’s face. Mulder wrapped his hand around Scully’s and loosened the grip, soothing the muscles. He looked at Scully’s face, seeing a little sweat had broken out on her forehead. He brushed it away. 

“Ow!” Scully yelped. “That hurt!”

Mulder blinked. “What?”

“He jammed something into my hip.”

“I’ve been poking you pretty steadily,” the instructor admitted. He lifted a capped ballpoint pen. “You guys got this thing in the bag. You don’t need to get so deep though. Keep it light. Talk about who will go to the kid’s ball practices, or who left the dirty dishes in the sink. Dana, work your way through the muscle tensioning exercises we covered that first class. Mulder, keep your hands on each muscle and talk her out of each.”

Mulder felt a squeeze of his hand and looked down to see Scully's wrapped around his fingers.

“I think we can do that,” Scully said. Then directed to Mulder, “C’mon. I’m hungry.”

Standing quickly, Mulder pulled Scully carefully to her feet, making sure he didn’t pull unevenly.

“See you Thursday night, guys,” the instructor said as he waved and walked back to his office.

Mulder guided Scully through the door with a hand on her lower back. “Thursday night,” he confirmed, looking back to see the instructor smiling. Scully smiled in return, which made Mulder scowl.

*

The next day, Scully sighed as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. She was in a meeting she was required to attend to sign off on any budgetary requests, but there wasn’t much she had to say. She looked down at her pad, she had unknowingly been tapping with the pen in her hand.

On her pad was a set of notes and a short string of names beneath them… Hosteen, Brent, Phillip, Wolf, Reggie, Grant, Dylan, James, Albert, Ronald… Baby names. Slightly bemused by her wandering mind, Scully closed her eyes and imagined offering up the names to Mulder tonight.

“Grocery list?” Skinner spoke from across the table.

“Something like that,” she answered shortly. 

Around them people were getting up, going over to the sideboard where coffee, tea, and a few small snacks had been set up. Scully pushed to her feet. 

“I was writing down some things I wanted to remind Mulder about,” Scully whispered to Skinner, showing off her pad.

“I don’t see Walter on there,” he commented in his best poker face.

“It’s on the official list,” Scully replied. “You’re in the running.”

Skinner nodded and Scully detected a slight blush on his cheeks.“Your bags packed and ready for the hospital?”

“For two weeks now,” she bragged.

The accountant called everyone back to their seats. Break was over. 

**Later that night...**

"Hey," Scully said to Mulder as he came into the house, one hand holding Maggie, the other Miri. Jen and Finn walked alongside them talking about the Fornite Doomsday Event . "I cooked dinner," Scully continued, “It’s warming in the oven.”

"I could have done that," Mulder said, pulling off his jacket and placing it on the back of the sofa. The girls ran to Scully to give her a kiss hello, then darted upstairs with Maggie to play. "Did you have enough to eat?"

"Yes. I had a full load of patients today and the longest accounting meeting in history with Skinner, but I even managed to eat the apple you packed.”

Mulder smiled as he sat down, lifting Scully's legs into his lap. "That makes me happy."

Scully sighed as Mulder's hands worked on her feet. "They’re not as painful as yesterday," she said, honestly.

"You want me to stop?" Mulder asked, raising his eyebrow, continuing to massage Scully’s feet. “Are we any closer with names?”

"Mmmm Mulder."

"I don't think that would work."

"No, Mulder, I meant..." Scully’s voice faded with the distraction of Mulder's hands. Determined to talk, she wriggled her feet away and sat up. “What about Angel? Or Walter?”

Mulder scrunched his nose in dismay. “I was thinking more like Ryker or Jonas.”

“Those are Star Trek names aren’t they, Mulder.”

“And Stargate SG-1.”

“I wonder what everyone’s reaction will be when they find out we’re having twins?” Scully asked, a secret kept between the two of them for the past four months. She ran a hand over her extended abdomen.

“I don’t know, but I liked having something that we shared, just the two of us,” Mulder replied.

Scully rested her head on Mulder’s shoulder as she tried to make herself more comfortable on the couch.

"Tired?" Mulder observed.

"I'm tired of being tired," Scully said.

"It's almost over. Soon we’ll get to meet our bouncing babies," Mulder reassured her.

Scully nodded and rubbed a hand over her belly. She paused, resetting her hand in place, smiling. "Hey, feel this." Scully took Mulder's hand.

Mulder leaned awkwardly forward as Scully pushed his palm against the lower right side of her belly.

"There," Scully moved his hand again. "Feel that?"

Mulder’s eyes lit up. "Hey there, buddy," Mulder said, speaking to the spot. Scully felt the baby kick again.

"They definitely like your voice," Scully said. "Say something else."

Mulder looked up into Scully's face. After a moment he spoke again to the baby. "You two are going to really like it here," he said. "You’re going to have a brother and so many sisters, me, and your mom. You’ll really love her, there really is no better."

Scully's eyes glossed over. She moved her hand to cover Mulder's as the baby moved again. Her gaze never wavered from Mulder's until a wide bit of pressure against their hands startled them both.

"Was that one of their backs?” Mulder asked.

Scully nodded and her other hand moved to the opposite side. "And I think this is a foot. The babies are turning. Maybe I should go upstairs and lie down."

Mulder helped Scully to her feet. Scully bent over, grabbing below her belly.

"Scully?"

"It's all right, just..., I… I, Mulder, I’m in labor,” she said on an exhale, quietly, straining.

“I’ll call William to watch the kids,” Mulder said quickly, helping her towards the car with his phone in hand lifting it to his ear. “William. It’s Dad. I’m taking your mother to the hospital. Could you…? Thank you. Don’t forget to call Monica.”

“What’d he say?” she asked.

“On his way here. Finn can watch them until he gets here.”

“What about Monica?”

“Probably meeting us at the hospital.”

Mulder grabbed the overnight bag from behind the couch and they headed out. 

This time Mulder calmly started the car, driving carefully, and following speed limits.

“How is your pain?” Mulder asked.

“It hurts,” Scully smiled sarcastically. “Give me your phone and I’ll time the contractions.”

They walked into the hospital and were greeted by a blur of motion and lights. An orderly greeted them and helped Mulder check Scully in and lead her towards the maternity ward.

**Two hours later...**

“Baby’s crowning,” Mulder said.

Mulder looked down to see Scully’s head straining and the tendons standing out in sharp relief on her neck. He reached for a cold, wet cloth and used it to brush the hair out of Scully’s face.

Her breathing remained deep and steady. “You’re doing great,” Mulder told her.

Love swam in the sky of her eyes as they lifted to meet his. Whatever the moment would have been however was interrupted by Scully’s gasp, groan, and gritted teeth as she lifted up, bent toward her knees and muttered, “Fuuuck Meee!”; the last syllable stretched out until she untensed. 

Mulder helped her ease back against the pillows and said, “Gladly, in another two months.”

Scully panted, and the doctor calmly instructed, “Almost. Do that again, Dana. Just once more.”

“I’m too old for this shit,” Scully muttered, but she sat up, gripping Mulder’s arm.

Mulder wrapped his other arm around Scully’s back. “We get through this together,” he said with determination, his mouth against her ear thinking how beautiful she was all sweaty and angry. 

He felt the second the contraction started, every muscle seemed to harden, steel under the satin of her skin. “You got this, Scully,” he whispered in her ear.

Tears coated Scully’s face, mingling with the sweat as she continued to bear down through the contraction.

A sustained guttural cry accompanied the end of the pressure and Scully gasped. Then the air was filled with a baby’s high cry.

The doctor lifted the screaming baby, umbilical dragging between his fingers. Mulder blinked, surprised to be clearing his own eyes of tears again and looked at the crying infant as the outright bawling changed to cries and hiccups. “It’s definitely a boy.”

The color of the baby’s skin lightened to a blotchy red. He appeared to be mostly bald, skin streaked and wet with blood and fluid, both Mulder and Scully pressed their hands to his back when the doctor laid him on Scully’s stomach.

“Hey,” Mulder gasped in awe when she saw the scrunched up face.

“Hi,” Scully echoed, albeit slightly weaker.

The doctor placed the surgical scissors in Mulder’s hand and he clipped off the umbilical cord. 

His tiny fist had already found its way against its mouth. The lips were so vividly red against the porcelain complexion. And now, as the skin dried, Scully could see a light dusting of wispy light brown hair. His color was as vivid as a fresh oil painting.

Scully smiled tiredly, brushing her fingers over the baby’s bottom. “What do you think of Exley?”

“All right, Dana,” the doctor interjected. “You’ve got one more waiting. Let’s finish this up and get your family in to see the newest addition.”

Mulder followed the nurse out to another room where he supervised all the newborn tests he had missed with their first two children because of the dangers. Now, him and Scully, besides their advanced age, were no different than anyone else having babies.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50220446776/in/dateposted/)


	16. Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twin babies are home from the hospital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for BabyMulder2018. Happy Birthday!! You're the best!

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50266927148/in/dateposted/)

“You know what tomorrow is M?” William asked as they finished up dinner.

Maggie shook her head back and forth in exaggerated style.

“Our brother and sister are coming home,” Miri blurted out. 

“That’s right,” William agreed. “I was thinking we could make a welcome home sign for them. What do you think, M? You want to paint?”

“Yes, pwease,” Maggie said, being polite like her mommy taught her.

“Can we have lights?” Miri asked.

“Lights?” Finn repeated, taking a second helping of everything.

“Miri and M want us to put up Christmas lights,” Jen explained. 

Molly turned to William.“We didn’t really do much for Christmas this year because of Hannah being born and Dana’s pregnancy. I think they’re just looking to do something exciting.”

William shrugged. “I guess. They probably store the decorations in the attic.”

Finn helped William unload the bins he found up there as the girls placed their contents around the house, creating an excitement in the air that got everyone smiling. They didn’t put up the tree, but they strung lights from inside to the out, covering everything within distance of an electrical outlet. 

Decorating took up most of the night, the kids finally collapsed on the couch and floor like dolls tossed randomly around. Not in their bedrooms as their mom would have wanted, but in the living room as a big sleepover. William changed Hannah while Molly divvied up the blankets and pillows, making sure everyone had their dolls to snuggle.

Monica opened the old creaky gate and Doggett pulled the SUV through. Mulder, sitting in the third row bench seat with Scully, took a look at his two sleeping beauties in their carseats and laced his fingers with Scully’s. “We ready for this, Scully?”

“We’re old, we don’t have close to enough energy, probably not enough money, we need more bedrooms, definitely need another bathroom, and we’re going to be spending all day changing diapers. No, we're not ready, but we’ll find a way. We always do.”

Mulder looked out the window at their porch in need of a good paint job. “Rewind five years. It was just the two of us. An empty house and endless possibilities.”

“And it all but destroyed us," Scully reminded him. "We needed the X-Files. We needed purpose, identity. Now we have several, individual and family.”

Mulder nodded. “Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Scully and…”

“...Mulder,” Scully finished.

“Bob. I was going to say Bob.”

Scully smiled and Mulder pressed his forehead to hers, almost clunking them together, his grin widening like The Grinch after stealing all the Christmas trees. “I’m very happy, Scully. Happier than I’ve ever imagined and I owe that to you.”

“To us, Mulder," Scully corrected. "And I’m happy too.”

Doggett adjusted the rearview mirror to see into the back seat. “What were these two like before we met them?”

“Can’t say, but when I think of all the things we touched in that office after they were alone in it…” Monica almost laughed out loud at Doggett’s bulging eyes. “I suddenly have an urge to wash my hands.”

“Why don’t we wait for them outside,” Doggett said, cringing at their sweet soft kisses now entertaining their tongues.

Mulder’s lips pressed hard against Scully’s, as he gently stroked her hair. Faintly, he could hear the babies waking with the car engine off. He pulled out of their kiss, but kept their closeness. “I love you Scully. For everything you are, for everything you’ve brought into my life.”

The babies went from gurgling to screaming. Scully gave him one last peck. “And I'm in love with you, Mulder,” she said taking a long breathy sigh. "Better get them in the house, they're hungry." 

Doggett, seeing them moving around in the car, helped Scully while Monica and Mulder unfastened the babies. 

Morning came early with Mulder bursting through the door waking everyone with the exception of Maggie. She had her stuffed penguin in a choke hold in the crook of her arm while little sounds of air puffed from her relaxed lips. When Monica and Doggett entered with the two crying and fussing babies, Maggie rubbed her eyes sleepily. “Is that my bwotha?” Maggie asked groggily, her eyes still closed. 

“And your sister,” Mulder answered. “And..” he put a bag of groceries on the dining room table, William leaving to go help unload the car. Mulder pulled out a box of donuts, icing dripping from each round pastry. “I got these just for you.”

Maggie’s eyes opened and grew wide. She kicked the blanket off her body and spoke to her penguin. “We got donuts, Georgie.”

With all the commotion the dog leaped on the couch, licking Maggie, causing her to howl with glee. Miri was already at the table peeking in the box while Finn went and retrieved the milk and his glass. Jenn got cups for the rest of them. 

Maggie climbed up on a chair and plucked a donut from the box, disregarding the icing already covering her hand, tore it in half, and dunked one half in the milk. With milk dripping from the soaked donut, she took a bite. White sugary icing and milk leaked from the spongy goodness and streamed down her chin. She wiped if off with the back of her hand. 

“Is it good?” Mulder asked.

Maggie nodded, bouncing her chin off her chest. Her sticky fingers threatened to cover his shirt. Miri saved the day, pushing the last of her donut into her mouth with her index finger and skipping over to Maggie, humming a tune Mulder faintly recognized from T.O.T.S, the cartoon about non-storks delivering babies. 

“M, let’s go in the backyard and play on the swings. Pleeeease,” begged Miri. 

“Okay,” Maggie said and ran after Miri. 

Mulder checked with Molly and his granddaughter, stroking the baby’s head, giving her a great big kiss. Then he poured himself a cup of the coffee William had made and joined Finn on the porch.

It was a cool crisp February morning. The leaves having left the trees months ago provided a view of the city far off in the backdrop. In the distance, coming in their direction, were two fighter jets. He knew Scully would be able to identify them by simply the sound of the engine, but he wasn’t certain. He thought they were a couple F16s. The noise of their engines coming before they passed, the immense power vibrating through Mulder’s body.

“I’m going to fly one of those someday,” Finn said, pointing at one.

“You want to fly fighter jets?” Mulder asked.

“Oh yeah, more than doing anything else!”

“Well, I suppose I could make a couple calls. I bet your uncle Charlie could get you a ride in one.”

“Really!!” Finn’s face was a glow, downing his can of the orange soda Scully only allowed him to drink on special occasions.

“Sure, and if you want we can even build a model. Get one that can actually fly.”

“Can we build a rocket ship that we can launch? Like blasts off and everything?” Finn said, excitedly waving his arms about, standing up from the porch steps. 

Mulder’s heart warmed and he felt almost teary eyed. “Absolutely. We can even each build our own and launch them together.”

“Ow, wow. Yeah. That’s so cool.”

Meanwhile, inside the house, Jenn barreled down the stairs in search of Scully. She found her nursing Exley while the other baby lay sleeping. “I wrote a letter to my mommy like you told me. Do you want to read it?”

“Sure Jenn,” Scully responded, rocking while Exley sucked away. “Why don’t you read it to me.”

Jenn carefully unfolded the paper. “Dear Mommy, I miss you. Finn and Miri don’t talk about you as much, but I have your picture by my bed. I hope you’re having fun and are happy with daddy in heaven. Do you get to ride bicycles? Aunt Dana said God needed another angel, but we wish you were here. We’ll see you again, but we will be very old. Love, Jenn. P. S. Is it all right if I call Aunt Dana, mama? She said it’s okay.” 

“That’s beautiful Jenn. We can put it in a biodegradable balloon and you can send it off for your mommy.”

“Okay,” Jenn said, all smiles. She sat and watched the babies sleep and eat, gently stroking their heads and offering her finger to their pudgy bright pink hands. “I like the babies. When I grow up I want to have twins too.”

“You do?” Scully answered, laughing.

“Yeah, I want five, no six,” Jenn said, hanging off the bed as Scully sat on the rocker, her light brown hair flopped down, so long it almost touched the floor.

That night...

The shriek of his name from Scully and Mulder catapulted out of bed. “What’s wrong!?!” he said in a panic staring down at his baby girl lying on her back. Scully was busy performing rescue breathing. 

“I was feeding her and I put her down in her crib and she stopped breathing,” Scully cried in between rescue breaths. 

“Did her heart stop?”

“I can still feel a weak pulse, but she’s not breathing.”

Quickly, Mulder’s mind spun, he ran into the bathroom and filled the basin with water as cold as he could get it, ran into the room and emptied the basin over the baby’s head, soaking Scully in the process. He fell to his knees and put his ear to her mouth. He heard the baby cough. “She’s breathing, let’s get her to the hospital.”

Dodging traffic and lights, Mulder sped, insisting on driving the Mustang. In record time the baby was admitted and Scully was assisting the doctor performing the tests.

Mulder hated having to stay in the waiting room unable to help his own child, but with Scully back there he knew she was getting the best care possible. He didn’t even try to stop himself from welling with tears, didn’t care who was around to see. He was already blaming himself, thinking of all he could have done differently. They hadn’t even named her yet.

The Unremarkable House

“Maggie, please calm down,” Doggett said as he sat down next to her on the couch, his forehead a jigsaw of lines.

Monica rushed over to them. “What happened? Maggie, what’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“If you calm down, I’ll let you watch TV, okay?” Doggett replied. “Let you eat some chocolate or cookies or somethin’.”

Monica shook her head at Doggett looking at him like he was crazy. “Tell me what’s wrong, Maggie.”

“I…. can’t.. breathe.. Mon. I’m…. dying,” she said through uneven gasps.

“You’re not dying,” Doggett interrupted, looking back at Monica. “You’ll be fine if you just calm down. Take some deep breaths.” Doggett over-exaggerated his breathing to demonstrate.

The dog jumped on the couch and curled next to Maggie. “Hi, Quee,” Maggie said, in short gulps of air. Her breathing slowing to uneven puffs as she pet his furry head. He yawned and stretched, resting his long legs across hers, laying his head on top.

“Mommy and Daddy will be home soon, M,” Monica said. “Just relax and I’ll make you some hot chocolate. Would you like that?”

Maggie nodded, her bottom lip curling and protruding over the top.

***

Finally, Scully appeared and waved Mulder over. “She’s going to be okay. We can keep her here overnight for observation. I’ll stay with her.”

“What was it?” Mulder asked, his voice breaking with tension.

“She had obstructive apnea. Possibly a combination of milk and mucus that lodged in her throat. Her lungs are slightly premature, not as developed as Exley's, but she’s doing really well.”

Muder, trusting Scully’s instincts, gave her a quick nod. 

“Come, you can hold her,” Scully said, waving him in.

Mulder entered the room, the nurse transferring her to his arms. He pulled her into his chest and rocked back and forth. Her face was now a bright shade of pink and full of life. He gave her a soft kiss at her forehead and whispered in her delicate ear. “I love you my baby girl. I need you to live, okay? Please baby. It’s all I ask of you. Just live.”

He held her to rest on his shoulder so he could hug her and rock some more, making a soft sushing sound to keep her calm, trying his best to leave at least one tear drop left inside his ducts. Scully returned and fixed the blanket that was wrapped around the baby.

“Scully, I know her name,” Mulder said as he lifted his head while Scully fawned over the baby.

“What Mulder?” Scully asked with a widening grin. 

“Olivia,” he said, then stared down at his child cooing in his arms. "Her name is Liv."


	17. Triple Trouble

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50379156163/in/dateposted/)Mulder woke to the sound of the twins wailing like a wolf had swallowed a siren. “Ex! Liv!” Mulder yelled from his sleep as he launched himself from the bed, sheets tangling around his legs, stomping as not to fall and land on the dog panting and wagging his tail at his feet. The mutt. Had he taken him out last night or had he left presents in the far corner of the house? Damn, there were too many creatures to keep track of. The dog peered up at him mournfully. Mulder apologized and stumbled down the stairs to open the front door. His legs as stiff as his back, hobbling around like a modern day Frankenstein. Every day he forced himself to lift weights and committed to do some aerobics and stretching. Although every night he found himself too tired to even consider it. Sleep only happened once the twins relented and Maggie drifted, so when they did, he spread himself across something at least semi cushiony. 

Bounding back up the stairs, he found Maggie in the hallway outside the twin’s room with her hands covering her ears. “I think they’re hungry, Daddy.”

“M, did you wake your brother and sister?” Mulder asked, rushing in the room to pick them up, their diapers sagging through their onesies, heavy with the morning delivery. 

Maggie shook her head in denial, but her rosy cheeks told a different story. Lately, vying for attention, Maggie was turning into quite the scoundrel, causing harmless, but worrisome, mischief and mayhem for her siblings. Everything from blaming them for wrongdoings to, like this morning, waking them up to the dismay of her mother and father. 

“M, you should never lie. What did mommy tell you about obfuscating the truth?”

“I not skating, daddy..” she said with a finger bulging out her upper lip. At Mulder’s scowl she added, “they had open eyes when I poke them.”

Mulder tried to swallow his laugh. When she flashed her wide turquoise eyes at him, there really was no staying angry. 

Changing the diapers of two wriggly babies was no small feat and Liv inched across the crib like a drunk caterpillar as Mulder changed Exley. He could have sworn the boy smiled at him before hitting him right in the mouth with a stream of urine. The kid could grow up to be a marksman with an aim like that. At the very least win his girlfriend a huge teddy bear after popping the balloon over the clowns head at the fair. With a freshly cleaned and pampered baby in each arm, Maggie followed them back to bed. He nestled the twins in the center of the mattress and Magge climbed on the other side patting down Exley’s dark locks. 

After some coaxing, Maggie told the twins a story in a language only siblings could understand as Mulder allowed the pull of sleep to drag him under. 

“Daddy?” he heard Maggie call in the distance of the waking shore from what seemed like minutes but were possibly, hopefully hours.

“Yeah?” he mumbled.

“If it’s dark, does Mommy use her fwashlight?”

“Yes, M, she’ll use her flashlight.” Mulder was so tired that it hurt to answer Maggie’s questions, dimly aware of the dog jumping on the bed and curling up behind his legs. Being sandwiched between little bodies felt like a slice of heaven until his long aching legs wanted to stretch and couldn’t. 

Mulder dreamt, disoriented to the point that he thought he was back at his old apartment. The shadowy walls, lit by a streetlamp, the noise echoing off the dusty ceiling fan of angry neighbors and firetrucks, zooming cars, and his own racing thoughts. 

Jolted awake, unaware of the time or how long he had been asleep he slowly became aware he was back in his home. By the shadows of the room, he knew the sun had yet to rise. Maggie was snoozing on the other side of the twins, her thumb firmly in her mouth sucking gently, her other arm around Ex like he was her favorite doll. His mouth slightly opened, revealing his tiny tongue attempting to devour her nose. Liv had clung to a lock of Mulder’s hair, her sharp miniscule nails digging into his ear like acupuncture gone horribly wrong. The dog still curled at the foot of the bed. 

Mulder drifted back to sleep, so tired that his muscles felt jumpy, his skin prickly. More time passed, although still not enough for his weary bones when there was Maggie, patting his cheek.

He opened an eye. The twins were sprawled out on their backs, taking up more room than seemed geometrically possible for two people who weighed less than a bag of dog food. 

“Daddy? Pancakes?” Maggie said, experimentally. When he opened both eyes, he saw the dog behind her, wagging his tail. The dog decided he was awake enough and jumped on the bed to lick at his face. “No and no,” he said to both of them, drifting back to sleep, pulling his pillow over his head.

“Daddy,” Maggie insisted, reaching under the pillow and patting his cheek harder until it could only be referred to as hitting. Or at least smacking. Her hand was sticky, somehow, already. It wasn’t even light out yet. 

The dog walked around to lay practically on Mulder’s face, thankful he had gotten him fixed or else his balls would probably be rocking on the bridge of Mulder’s nose. Liv’s eyes popped open. That was it. All hopes of sleep had ended. Every day he thought he might not last another, yet every day he did. It was an unexplained phenomenon that all parents did. His exhaustion was not supernatural and neither were his abilities to keep his children alive one more day a triumph in superhuman feats, but it sure felt like it. In reality, it was probably closer to that of basic competency. "Tell Mommy to take the dog out," Mulder said.

Maggie shook her head. "Too far."

"What?" Mulder lifted Exley, who belched loudly, looking surprised and pleased, a diminutive chip off the block. Scully’s that was. Then he remembered he hadn't burped him after his last feeding. 

Maggie laughed heartily and giggled out, "Too _far._ Mommy at _work._ "

_Damn._

Three hours of diapers that had to be changed, clothes that had to be put on, breakfast that had to be served, faces that had to be washed, hair that had to be combed, teeth that had to be brushed, endless questions that had to be answered, shoes that had to be wriggled into, until finally... Mulder was wearing the same T-shirt and shorts he had worn the day before; the twins were tucked into either side of his daddy carrier sling; Maggie was dressed in a yellow Beauty and the Beast tutu, and pink Crocs her uncle Charlie had gotten her if only to piss off Mulder, sucking a bottle she decided she was no longer too old for once she saw the twins doing it; the dog harnessed into his leash. The whole happy family walking the dog around the property until he did his business and they could clamber into the car and be on their way for some groceries.

Maggie stayed close to her daddy in the store, only wandering a couple feet to grab for boxes of cereal or rice she felt her daddy was too tall to reach. 

Mulder had always had a great need for solitude. In their past life, Mulder and Scully required huge swaths of it, and now to be bereft, which had been the case for the past two years, that frustration sometimes led to panic or anxiety. And when the desires to pursue what had kept him going for the whole of his adult life, the search for the truth, his anxiety bled into guilt, gnawing at him like a rat. Time, slipping away, running through his fingers like sand while he... did what? Cleaned floors, washed clothes, made dinner, washed up, went shopping, played with the children, brought them home, undressed them, bathed them, changed countless diapers, looked after them until it was bedtime, tucked them in, hung some clothes to dry, folded others and put them away, tidied up, wiped tables, chairs and put all the cleaned dishes back in the cabinets. It was a struggle, and even though it didn’t appear as heroic as his past life, it had its rewards.

On the other side of it, he was up against a superior force, for no matter how much housework he did, the rooms were littered, and the children had to be taken care of every waking minute, and at times, it was nothing less than bedlam. 

Mulder’s wrenching heart startled him back to the present, from the blood curdling sound of Maggie’s screams. “Are you hurt, honey?” Mulder asked, crouching quickly besides her, trying not to let the twins snuggled into each chest topple him over. She shook her head no, pointing upward, wanting to be held. 

“I can’t right now. Later, when we’re home, we can play airplane if you want?” His eyebrows slanted as he looked around afraid of the judgmental eyes of the women around him. 

A kind soul took pity on him and crouched beside him asking Maggie what she needed. Maggie only screamed, her eyes filled with fresh tears, “Mommy!”

Unfortunately, these violent outbursts, fits at times, seemed to have appeared just as the twins were born. It was impossible to reason with her in this state and all she did was scream and scream. Usually when this occurred he’d hold her or her mother would hold her and rock her until it subsided, but he didn’t have this advantage now and in full public view to have such a quick escalation, was not what he needed. He wanted to forget shopping, sling her over his shoulder like a 20lb bag of rice and carry her kicking and howling as if possessed, but with the twins this was an improbable task. 

Finally, Maggie spoke an actual word through her tears and phlegm. “Princess.”

Mulder looked at the woman. “Princess?” his eyebrows shrugging in confusion.

“She wants the princess bandaids. I guess she couldn’t reach them,” the woman said and smiled as she took a packet off the shelf and handed it to Mulder.

“This?” he asked, holding it up for her to see and with a fist twisting in her eye nodded, the corner of her mouth raising in a sly smile that could only be from her father’s daughter. 

“Thank you,” Mulder acknowledged to the lady and she assured him it was normal. Her smile made him uneasy and he lifted his left hand self consciously as he massaged his ring with his thumb. 

After that he hurried through the rest of the store and headed home before the twins had more waterworks over wanting food or needing to be changed.

When he pulled up the driveway he found Scully’s car in it. That brought a smile and a stroke of energy. She was home early. After a quick kiss hello and a smile that was too relaxed for his liking, she helped him unload the children and the groceries. 

Mulder slumped down into the couch, his bones screaming for relief and a good night’s sleep. He was about to power on the television when the folder in Scully’s open briefcase caught his eye. A photograph. Photographs in a folder meant one thing for Scully. Someone was dead. Mulder wasn’t one to snoop, that was more Scully’s department, but they didn’t have any boundaries between them either. 

“Scully,” he called, but she was busy feeding, burping, and changing the twins, far from earshot. He carefully slipped the folder out as not to disturb anything further.

Those pictures were even more intriguing than he had hoped. It put fire back in his veins and he couldn’t help but enjoy the rush.

“These men, they look like they were petrified. Volcanic ash?” Mulder asked as Scully joined him on the couch resting her feet on the coffee table and her head on his shoulder.

She shook her head and tightened her lip. “Nope.”

“Traces of calcite, pyrite, quartz, iron carbonate, calcium phosphate?” He rambled off, but her head shook in defiance.

“None.”

“Then what?”

“Silica,” she answered, lifting her head and sitting upright, comforting her top lip with her tongue, preparing them for the words that were about to leave them. She did it to build up the courage from that which made her uncomfortable. “Although it’s not a silica derived from anything that has inhabited the earth for the past millennia.”

“Where was this body found, Scully?” he asked, sharing a smile at her enjoying his spark of interest. He wanted to kiss her right then, but he was still involved in finding the answers.

Instead, she cocked her eyebrow. “The man was found in that condition in his own backyard.”

Mulder waited for her to elaborate, but she paused, clearly waiting for his own deductions. He studied the picture again. “The man’s fist is closed. What was he holding?”

“Seeds. The man was in his garden planting corn.”

“And your theory?”

She comforted her top lip with her tongue. “We’ve come across hybridized strains of corn before.”

“Yes, but I don’t think this is related.” Mulder paused. Then dashed over to his desk and began sifting through his piles. “I have files of periodicals, with accounts of ancient corn. They were found from Egyptian mummy’s tombs. Mummies grasping the seeds similar to that man. A Martin Tupper, once sent letters to the NY Times about growing this corn and its possible abilities. How did you find this case?”

“Miller is working on it. Wanted me to take a look at it and give him my thoughts. Oversee the autopsy as a favor. I heard they’ll have a whole new crew hunting X-Files soon.” Mulder ignored her so she continued, “I brought it to you thinking you might have some insight. Something to take you away from changing diapers for the moment.”

“I would start with analyzing the strain of seeds and look into the background of Weekend at Bernies. He might have been an archeologist or scientist, or have a relationship to them.”

Scully laughed.

“What?” He asked, poking his head up from the floor so he could see her over his desk.

“It’s just good to see you like that.”

Mulder returned her smile. “Is it good to see me like this?” He asked, taking two quick strides and vaulting himself over the back of the couch and pouncing on top of her, joining their lips, quickly deepening the kiss, and sparking life into body parts that thought he forgot existed.

“Mulder,” Scully mumbled against his lips.

“Yeah.”

“It’s quiet. Where’s Maggie?”

Mulder jumped from the couch sending a hand through his hair. “She was just here, playing with the dog. She had her stethoscope on and she was giving him a physical.”

They called for her and Maggie appeared with a Mulan bandaid flapping from her thumb. 

“Did you hurt yourself, Maggie?” Scully asked. 

“No, Mommy. Doggy got boo boo.”

Before Mulder could ask, the dog appeared, decorated with at least eight princess bandages that Mulder could count. “How did the doggy get a boo boo?” Mulder asked, watching the large sways of the dog’s tale and the panting tongue that seemed delighted at all the attention.

Maggie only shrugged and Mulder understood. “It was only pretend?”

Maggie nodded with great enthusiasm. “Pweetend Daddy!”

“Oh, no,” Mulder could hear Scully say as she walked into the bathroom. It didn’t take much time to figure out her dismay. Maggie had emptied the entire tube of toothpaste into the sink in wide designs and had been painting the walls in Scully’s dark red lipstick. 

“Why?” Mulder asked, two lines heavy between his brow.

“It’s normal, Mulder, she’s jealous of the attention her siblings are getting and she’s trying to draw some of her own. In this case, quite literally. Go talk to her. I’ll clean this up.” 

Mulder felt his blood pressure rising, but it was quickly calmed at the angelic look of Maggie in the center of the rug peacefully playing by herself. It made him sympathize. He was the oldest once and he remembered how he teased his sister years ago for stealing his one man show.

“You playing a game, Maggie?” Mulder asked, watching Maggie pop the dice on the trouble board and move the pieces. 

“Yes, Daddy. I’m pwaying with Grammah.”

“Grandma? Daddy’s mommy or Mommy’s?” Mulder asked, knowing that Scully had shown Maggie pictures and told Maggie stories of the two. Maggie sometimes asked him to tell her stories about them too.

“Bowf!” Maggie said, pointing to the pieces. 

Mulder observed for a bit to make sure none of the pieces were moving on their own, but no, Maggie was moving them, having deep conversations with the air.

“How about you and the two Grandmas come with me into the kitchen and we can make pancakes for everybody?” Mulder asked, knowing Maggie had been wanting pancakes all day and wondering if this was part of Maggie’s imaginary friends or actual visitations from the dead.

*

In the kitchen, Mulder retrieved the stainless steel bowls, measuring cups, and the list of ingredients, then hooked up the griddle. He lifted Maggie onto the chair, and under his supervision, Maggie stirred the ingredients. Mulder added a couple final churns to make sure everything was thoroughly mixed. Then he lifted her onto the chair so she could direct him, pouring the batter onto the griddle. 

The sweet scent of pancakes and bacon wafting in the air brought William, Molly, the grandbaby, and Finn to the table who had all just returned from their busy days. By 6:30pm, everyone was out of their rooms and eating at the table, with no one complaining of eating breakfast for dinner. Scully knew everyone eating in the same place was something that might seldom happen again, and took Mulder’s hand to capture the moment in hopes she could keep the memory with her for the days when everyone was too busy with their individual lives.

“What’s wrong with the dog?” Finn asked, watching him wagging his tail and rubbing against the chair.

“Grammah is petting him,” Maggie said proudly, then slapped her hand over her mouth like she had spilled the beans.

“Yeah, sure,” Finn answered unconvinced.

Maggie shrugged, stabbing a piece of pancake with her fork, running it through the syrup and holding it so she could wrap her mouth around the fork to eat it.

Mulder gave her an ‘I believe you’ wink and passed the syrup to Jenn.

*

A couple hours later the doorbell rang and the dog beat everyone to the door, barking his ferocious bark only a mixed mutt could muster. Before anyone could answer Bill was pressing the bell again.

Miri stumbled across the living room and opened the door. 

“Hi, Miri!” Tara said bending down to her height. “Is Uncle Mulder here?”

“He’s not my uncle anymore. He’s my Papa. I didn’t want to call him Daddy because I have a daddy but he’s in heaven so I asked him if I could call him Papa since he’s my daddy now and he said yes.” All of it coming out in one breath. Tara stared at her trying to keep up. Miri wasn’t finished. “Hannah might call him Papa too because that’s her grandpa, but I’m calling him Papa because he’s my daddy.”

“Is he home?” Bill asked impatiently.

“Papa,” Miri yelled out in a screech that was also a scream. 

Mulder peaked through the window. _Oh, God it’s Bill,_ Mulder thought as he made his appearance at the door, shirtless. Mulder’s tousled hair and low hanging gray sweatpants made him a sexy sight to behold and had Tara’s top teeth digging into her bottom lip.

“Mulder,” Bill muttered “You’ve knocked up my sister yet again and here we are to celebrate.”

“Always a pleasure, Bill,” Mulder said, giving Tara a kiss on her blushing cheek.

“I brought over a dish,” Tara said holding up a plate, flashing Mulder a brilliant smile.

Scully came up behind Mulder and took the dish from her hands. “Thank you.”

“Excuse the mess,” he said, kicking away the littering of shoes, jackets, knapsacks, and toys. 

Bill took a large step to clear it. “Dana. I’m surprised you haven’t enforced some law and order around here,” Bill said, surveying the dirty dishes and empty food containers and the full trash bin. The countertop, covered in batter and crumbs. 

“Why don’t I tidy up for you?” Tara offered.

“I should really turn down the offer, but if you want to help, I’m sure I can get the kids to chip in while Scully and I change and bathe the twins,” Mulder said, scratching his head, forcing Tara’s eyes to watch the flex of his bicep.

“It’s not a problem at all,” Tara answered and tugged Bill’s arm. “Come on, Bill. We’re here to help not criticize.”

To Be Continued...


	18. Flashlights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's taken me way too long to post this chapter, so as a bit of a gift, hopefully if you like it, I decided to give you a longer chapter than most or possibly all. It's got a little of everything: angst from Bill, MSR, First time after baby sex, a micro X-File, and the intro to Mulder and Maggie's birthday. 
> 
> I tried to include a everything that you had told me you wanted from the comments. Next chapter will conclude their birthday and a little visitation from Grandma Maggie.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50514296158/in/dateposted/)

High pitch screeching, like a squirrel running from a Mark 45 torpedo rang in Bill’s ears, only muffled by the heavy oak door of the guest bedroom. 

“Bill, we should get a room in a hotel,” Tara remarked. 

“We are. I’m not staying in this zoo another night. I don’t know what my sister was thinking with all these kids.”

“I meant because William and Molly should have their room back. It’s not right having them stay at her mom’s.”

“It’s not right for anyone to stay here.”

Just then the door nudged open, the patter of paws hit the hardwood floor, with a swift jump the pup had straddled Bill and was hitting him with a barrage of licks, his tongue flapping sodily against his cheek leaving behind a trail of thick wet saliva. “Aagh!” Bill grunted, shooing the dog away as he lifted himself from the bed only to be knocked back by Maggie giving him morning hugs. Bill’s face softened the harder Maggie squeezed.

“Maggie, leave your uncle alone, he’s still sleeping,” Scully said, rocking Liv as she rested her head on her shoulder.

Bill threw down the covers and stomped off to the bathroom. When he emerged he saw Mulder appear at the top of the steps. Why the man thought it was appropriate to walk around half naked astonished Bill. Mulder had his youngest son clenched to his chest and his hair was still damp from a shower. Bill watched as he sauntered down the stairs. Even with sixty years on this earth quickly knocking at his door the man was lean and taut. It made Bill wonder what miracle tonic he had going for him. Some alien stem cells or some other hocus pocus would probably be the answer if he ventured to ask. When Mulder reached the bottom he passed Bill a short glance and a weak smile. Bill ran a hand through his silver strands. It was going to be a long day. 

Around eleven in the morning, Mulder cornered Scully coming out of the bathroom. The fresh soapy scent from his skin indicated to her he had freshly showered and was surprisingly out of his sweatpants and adorned with a black hoodie over his chiseled torso. She was instantly lost in his spicy warm heady odor. “Want to go out? Get something to eat?” he asked energetically.

“Mulder, we have company.”

“Tara is taking the twins for a walk in their stroller. We’ve got plenty of food if they get hungry.”

“And Maggie?”

“Monica and Doggett are on their way. They’ll watch Maggie.”

Scully opened her mouth to protest again. “All I’m asking to do is go for a ride. Come on.”

He waggled his eyebrows and flashed his sexy mossy oaks at her and she couldn’t do anything but nod, knowing for everyone’s mental health it was better if they left. Before she could blink Mulder was in his Mustang, spinning it around and waiting for her to join. Within 45 minutes they were waiting in line at the drive thru of a local chain that served the healthier fare Mulder knew Scully demanded. Even so, he knew she was stealing his waffle fries. 

“Wouldn’t it be quicker to go inside? Eat at a table?” Scully asked, noticing the line inside was shorter even though she wasn’t ready to leave the comfort and intimacy of the car.

“Then we’d have to deal with all those people. This way I only deal with you and the one taking my order.”

Scully’s eyebrows raised and she crossed her arms. “Does that make you a misanthrope or an introvert or both?”

“Either way, it takes work,” Mulder deadpanned.

Scully couldn’t help but laugh as she settled back in her heated leather seat and focused on the red brake lights ahead of her. It was just the two of them, getting to be Mulder and Scully, and that was a gift in itself. 

By the time they got to the window Scully was practically salivating. They ate sitting on the hot hood of the car with a view of the trees dotted with houses and the salty scent of the ocean. They were sitting close enough for Scully to feel his body and inhale their tension as she stuffed her face with a loaded salad and half of Mulder’s fries.

“Mulder, you work so hard to keep fit,” her words muffled by the salty goodness of fried potato.

“..I think of my workouts more as training, preparing, for something I hope never comes to pass..”

“Yes, but yet you’ll eat a hamburger and fries,” Scully admonished.

His mouth curved in a small smile at the irony as he watched her dainty finger molest the last fry. “It’s all about balance.”

Scully chuckled as she sucked the greasy starchy stick into her mouth.

He took another bite of his juicy burger and his eyes narrowed, the little lines around his eyes crinkling. He even made eating a burger sexy, but then again, everything with Mulder was sexy. Feeling bold, she held his wrist and with her gaze linked to his and bit down on his burger, chewing it slowly. “Not bad,” she conceded, “But still not worth the cholesterol.”

That undercurrent of electric tension always remained no matter how many diapers or crying babies or truths to uncover. She knew scientifically it could be explained as a chemical reaction, a trick her body played when he was near, a necessity of nature for continuing the species or a survival instinct of Darwinism, but her heart knew it was more. More than some supernatural explanation either, philosophical or godly one. It was their truth, a trust, of two people, full of loyalty, honesty, and respect, refusing to ever give up on the other. A codependency of the utmost proportions.

“You haven’t been talking as much today,” Scully observed after moments of silence ticked by.

“I thought you’d appreciate the peace and quiet,” he rebutted.

“I never minded your incessant spewing of history, facts, and theory,” Scully replied.

Mulder laughed at the remark, crumbling his empty wrapper and tossing it in the paper bag with the rest of the trash. He looked her over as he washed down his food with a long sip of his soda. “I used to have a sweatshirt just like that,” he smirked.

Scully stifled a groan. “Well, you’re not getting it back.”

He waved it off. “Keep it. I’ve always liked seeing you in my clothes.”

She peeled her eyes. “That sounds a little possessive.”

Mulder leaned into her, inches from her mouth. He took another long draw of his straw. “Doesn’t it?”

In that small space between their lips she felt their history, his hand covered hers, leaning on the hood of the car, and she squeezed his hand tight, the way she always had as it dragged her down dark alleys and unseen doorways. 

Mulder’s eyes hooded as his gaze lowered to her mouth. She licked her top lip and his own lips parted. Then, Mulder glanced at the parking lot full of people and shook his head. “Let’s go. M will be waiting.”

And just like that, they were back in their prime on a case and Scully felt left high and dry. She slid from the hood and gathered their trash, jogging across the parking lot to the garbage can where Mulder picked her up a few seconds later. He threw the car into second and pressed the gas, the force pulling Scully back into her seat, forcing her to absently grab at the first thing to hold onto, finding Mulder’s hand and his heart melting smile. He carried hers to the shifter and pushed from 3rd to 4th, only to downshift on the highway entrance and gun it again through the turn. It was a rush, pure adrenaline high. She didn’t like the lack of control and loved it all at the same time. This time she didn’t resist and went with the jolt, trusting in the man behind the wheel to keep them safe. 

Several minutes later and some more winding curves they were off the highway and towards the hills. Scully recognized the desolate area where Mulder had gone several times with her mother to pick strawberries or apples depending on the season. They had passed many quiet areas where, if one was looking to be isolated to say do more than talk, could have pulled over, but Mulder was on a mission - for apples. After securing a bushel of reds and greens, cider, and a homemade loaf of pumpkin bread and blackberry bread, Mulder’s hazels casted a glow of youthful wonderment and nostalgia with a tinge of puppy dog. The shadows pushed away in winter’s breeze. It wasn’t the kind of romp he had her longing for, but she’d sacrifice for the fullness in his heart any day of the week. 

When they pulled back up to the house they looked at each other in foreboding, but said nothing, Mulder creeping up towards the back of the house to put some of their stash in the refrigerator on the porch. Scully grabbed some groceries herself and trailed behind. Mulder put the rest of the stash in the fridge and shut the door. “I guess the commercial break is over,” he remarked. “Time for our regularly scheduled programming.” 

Scully’s lips went dry as she read Mulder’s thoughts, but before she could coat them with her tongue, Mulder’s hand was through her hair, holding the back of her head. Giving him permission, she rose on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Their responsibilities would have to wait.

Dipping his head, he slanted his mouth over hers and like time had stood still, patiently traced her lips with his. Softly. Slowly. Like they had no urgency to ever be inside their home with mouths to feed and little beings who solely depended on them.

Desperate, she crushed her lips against his and he kissed her back, hard enough to steal her breath; his tongue parting her lips, allowing her to taste the dark and forbidden part of his soul. The change of pace was slow and dirty and had her hands fisted in the thick cotton of his hoodie. Shivers raced up and down her spine and heat pooled deep in her abdomen as his tongue stroked hers. She moaned in pleasure grinding against his growing erection, seeking their physical connection. She was two seconds away from climbing him like a tree. 

“Scully,” he growled and sunk his teeth into her bottom lip, sucking it in to ease the sting. He gave such good pain and she wanted all of it. Her lips could be kissed raw and swollen by him and she still yearned for more. Always had, and with no doubts or regrets, always will. 

With every push of his lips and brush of his tongue he made her knees weaker, her insides glow, and between her thighs electric. Her folds, her clit buzzed for him as his erection prodded her stomach; made her anxious, excited, and restless. Scully bit back a whimper as he skimmed a hand down the back of her thigh and lifted her leg, he dipped down so his hard length could press against her groin. She drug her manicured fingernails into his shoulders. He made her an addict for him. 

“Take your pants off,” he rasped. 

“Mulder, what if..”

“Please, Scully.”

She quickly healed off her shoe and slid off a leg while she heard the cling of his buckle and zip of his jeans. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw him dip into his boxers. “Wait,” she said, suddenly.

He paused, a sting in his eyes. “Let me do that,” she said, offering up a crooked grin. She kissed his smile and dug below his waistband, the feel of him warm and electric. She loved that feeling of his silky steel, thick, long, and hard, the physical manifestation of his want for her, it revved her up, his need for her pleasure and hers for his. She squeezed it gently as she slid towards the base, feeling it grow harder in her hand, making her salivate at the thought of what it felt like to wrap her lips around it. 

Mulder gripped her hips and lifted her off the ground, her legs cinching around his waist, her lips fused to his. Her back hit the siding, but she didn’t feel it as their tongues dueled in a battle for possession. 

Mulder fisted his length, guiding his tip to her entrance, teasing her folds as he did, burying himself slowly inside. Scully’s entire body thrummed. Mulder made her full, but then stopped, giving her a moment, it being their first time since the babies, but her body had other ideas. She bucked and rode him, hot and hard inside her. It felt devine. “Mulder, it’s been so long, I’m going to come.”

“Please, Scully. Come all over me,” he panted, “I forgot how much I missed being connected in this way.” He began to thrust wildly. He fisted her hair and kissed her hard and deep, his thumb finding her clit just in time for her to explode, coating him over and over. 

“Oh, dear God, Mulder,” she let out in a not so silent scream. She could feel her walls tensioned and clenching around him, her entire body tremors beneath his harsh breath, the heat of his orgasm inside her nearly blinding her with pleasure. Her head fell to his chest. It wasn’t their best performance, lasting, short minutes, but it made up for months of longing. Mulder gently lowered her to her feet, although they were not quite really anticipating holding her full weight quite yet. They kissed again as they fastened their respective clothing and just as they considered a second round, a throat clearing separated them.

“I thought maybe a racoon had found your garbage. Didn’t know you were back. You think you could possibly tear your hands off my sister long enough to change your baby’s diaper. She’s been crying for you.”

Mulder didn’t even look at Bill. “I’ll take care of it,” he said to Scully and brushed by him into the house.

Scully managed to gather everyone at the dining room table for a late dinner. Maggie happily showed Bill and Tara where they needed to sit while the twins sat on either side of Mulder’s respective laps, a bottle in each hand as he balanced them enough to feed them at the same time. 

“Aren’t you coming to the table?” Scully asked as she set down the food.

“Go ahead, I’ll grab something when they’re done.”

They passed around the bowls and Bill dug right in. “While Tara and I are here we’re going to finalize our arrangements at Arlington. Have you considered where you are going to be buried? Mom at one time had spoken of having a family plot.”

“Bill,” Tara said, her cheeks reddening, “this isn’t good table conversation and in front of the kids..”

“It’s fine, Tara,” Scully said, “Although maybe later with just the four of us might be more appropriate.”

“We should really discuss it before we go down there if we’re thinking of a family plot,” Bill argued. 

“I should probably stop you there, Bill,” Mulder said from the couch ignoring Scully’s glare. “We won’t be needing a plot. We’re not going to die. Scully’s immortal and my daughter can keep  _ me _ from the grave.” 

Bill blinked twice then rubbed a hand over his face. “So, Dana, my son’s friend tells me you’re up for the job in the treasury department.”

Now it was Scully’s turn to blush. “That’s classified, Bill.”

“My intel has the highest clearance. Not as high as you will have. It’s the job of a lifetime, Dana.”

Mulder’s back stiffened and he felt the acid from lack of food creeping up into his esophagus. She hadn’t told him. He stared at her, but she refused to join his eyes, or allow him into her emotions. Instead she lifted her hand slightly from the table signalling to him they would discuss it later. Liv gurgled and he lifted both twins, one on each shoulder with cloths underneath, to burp them. 

“So, Mulder, have you looked into employment?” Bill said gruffly.

“Mulder is publishing a book and is in the process of writing another one. He also freelances as a teacher for the FBI, but he has the most important job here, raising our children,” Scully said, but her eyes warned Bill not to tread down his current path.

Bill took a slow drink of water, wiped his face with the napkin and set it down on the table. “I was searching through our father’s chest. Mom had given it to me years ago and I never took the time to peruse thoroughly. I found some papers. I didn’t give them much thought, but flipping through Yahoo! News a couple weeks ago I came across a news report concerning a Navy ship being towed into harbor and spontaneously bursting into flames. It reminded me of the notes dad had kept in one of the log books I found. The log contained similar descriptions of how they had found the crew - terror frozen on their faces, laid randomly throughout the ship, some with arms reaching for help. The most peculiar of all was officially, the ship never existed. What really drew my attention was the last sentence written in the Captain’s log - “I die.”

“Sounds similar to the story of the S.S. Ourang Medan.” Scully glared back at Mulder, but he continued, “If I recall, that was a hoax, the X-File contained a news report seven years before it happened. Unless you believe the ones that reported it were psychic.” Scully’s eyes practically bulged out of their sockets. “Although that would be a crazy notion. I mean, who’d believe that?”

“So, are you telling us this because you’re preparing us for Halloween?” Scully asked, trying to take control of the direction of the conversation.

“My youngest son is scheduled to go out on a ship traveling the same route,” Bill explained. “What if those ships contained some type of bioweapon? My son could be in danger.”

Scully frowned. “Bill, I’m sure there are others that are closer to this that you can contact..”

“Bill and I agreed that we would take care of the twins if you wanted to investigate,” Tara interjected, obviously concerned for her youngest son. “Taking on Maggie may be a little much though. Is there someone who might watch her?”

Maggie looked at Mulder, her teal eyes burying into his heart as panic rose in her face. “It’s okay Scully,” Mulder said. “We’ll take Maggie.”

Early the next day, while packing up the car, Scully voiced her concerns. “Mulder, I don’t know about this. You’re no longer an agent and I don’t go out in the field anymore.. we’d be going as civilians. What if it’s dangerous?”

“The place we’re investigating is a tourist exhibit. How dangerous could it be?” Mulder proposed.

Scully nodded. 

Then he added, “Besides, you don’t believe in alien invaders or ghost ships, remember?”

Mulder lifted Maggie into her carseat and when Mulder went to strap her in Maggie pushed his hand away in frustration. “I do, Daddy.”

Mulder looked at her shocked, and then his heart jolted. His little girl was growing, able to almost strap herself into the car. 

Once at their destination, they settled into the hotel and then headed to the beach, Maggie playing with her shovel and pail in the sand. The water crept in, tickling her feet. Mulder’s nose was buried in Bill Scully’s old logs and some other research books, under a beach umbrella with Scully, her own attention drawn to her novel she had been trying to finish for the last three months, the one life kept interrupting.

“So why are we here?” Scully asked, lowering her book and watching her daughter splashing in sandy puddles.

“According to the timeline and the coordinates, whatever it is that is attacking those ships will be doing it tonight off the coast and we’ll be there to witness it.” Mulder skimmed through some loose pages, pushing his dark rimmed reading glasses further up the bridge of his nose. Those glasses did something very sexy as they framed his face. Made him distinguished, in a hot for teacher sort of way. It forced Scully to shift in her beach chair. 

“Your brother didn’t tell us the entire story of your father’s logs. That log had references to Project Grudge.”

“My father had nothing to do with the study of UFOs, Mulder,” Scully said, a clear irritation in her voice.

“Be that as it may, that ship did.”

Scully removed her own reading glasses to get a clearer read on Mulder. “So what’s your theory? Black oil? Greys?”

“There is an agreement for an exchange happening at certain intervals,” Mulder muttered, still reading.

“What sort of exchange?”

“Alien technology for genetic material. Given what we’ve seen, I’d say they’ll be here to pick up the genetic material.”

Scully took a deep breath, but it failed to calm her temper. “The project is over, colonization is not happening.”

“True, but the science continues.”

“So you’re telling me you believe the men on that ship died of radiation exposure from an alien craft?” 

Mulder didn’t answer, instead getting up to retrieve Maggie’s bucket for her that was quickly floating out to sea.

That night, Mulder double checked the coordinates on his trusty old paper map. “You sure you don’t want to come?” he asked one final time.

“I’ll be fine, Mulder. I’ll be by the pool reading. If you need me just pick up the phone. You and Maggie go hunt for seashells.”

“At first sight of the ship, I’ll call you,” he said, his hands resting at his hips.

Scully looked up at him through her thick lashes. “And I’ll answer.”

*

Mulder crouched down low in order to demonstrate to Maggie how to power on her flashlight and how to properly handle it. She pressed the button, but Mulder still needed to assist as she did it, her tiny finger not yet able to apply enough pressure to make the electronic connection. 

Then at once, the cool beam cut through the moist air, tiny gnats swirled around as it did, hoping to find warmth. Mulder powered on his own light and together they made their way down the shoreline. Maggie’s beam floated around the sand and into the ocean, bouncing off the clouds until she understood to steady it like Daddy, using both her hands.

“I found one, Daddy!” Maggie yelled, making a small leap, her two feet denting imprints in the sand. She bent down slowly and lifted up the small hermit crab. Its twig-like body folding into itself to fit back into its shell. 

The boardwalk went strangely quiet the farther out they went. The stores had closed down and people were nowhere in sight. There was a cold chill in the night air, quite typical for this time of year, so it caused Mulder no alarm. He had always loved that cool breeze that worked its way up his spine, making him come alive with energy. In contrast, Maggie shivered as the night air met the ocean and Mulder slid one jacket on her and the other on himself, thankful Scully had made him bring them just in case. 

As they prodded along they hit an area of the beach where the lights of the hotels did not reach and as the darkness coated them, it was almost like someone had flipped a switch, the moon hiding behind clouds and the air quiet. The seagulls had also stopped their ruckus. If not for the crash of the waves, Mulder might have succumbed to complete disorientation. It was only Maggie and Mulder, out in the night, with their flashlights to lead the way. Mulder preferred the desolate landscape to the bustle of crowds, although his hand checked the heaviness of his gun at his hip. FBI or not, a gun remained at his side. He had felt too naked without it all the years on the run. His gun was as much a part of him as his fingers or toes, strapping on his holster as comfortable as a pair of well worn socks. 

It was a little past nine Mulder noted as he looked at his watch. Maggie was gathering shells into the pouch her mommy had given her when the sea began to bubble and a frigid fog drifted in so thick you could hardly see.

“It’s okay, M,” Mulder said in even tones as panic struck her face, “I won’t let anything harm you.” Mulder knew there was no point in running, whatever it was, if it wanted them could easily find them. The ground began to shake and rumble, like someone was drilling into the earth, or drilling out of it.

If Scully had been there she might have reasoned the sound away stating it must be something coming from the city or the nearby Air Force base, but Mulder knew better. This was coming from underground. 

Then, as suddenly as it came, it stopped, the fog clearing to a thin mist. If Mulder had been alone, he might have ventured out further, searching out the root of the sound, but he was with his daughter. “M, I think it’s time we head back to Mommy. I’m sure by now she’s done relaxing in the hot tub and reading her book. She’s probably already showered and watching tv, waiting for us.”

Just before they reached the hotel strip, it happened again. Only this time, the sound was much stronger, clearer, yet still not a sound his ears could quite hear. And with that sound came a breeze. Maggie pointed out at the ocean. The sound, this time, seemed more, organic. As if coming from a living creature. One that was screaming.

“I want Mommy,” Maggie cried out, but she didn’t seem upset. To Mulder it almost sounded like she might have wanted her here to protect her. Protect him. They were only about 200 yards from civilization. Mulder took longer strides fighting with the sandy terrain, but at the same time not to alarm his daughter. “We’re almost back, M.” With Mulder’s next stride he took in a deep breath and now he smelled it. The stench of decomposing fish, only ten times stronger than anything he had been witness to, even worse than the sickening smell during one of Scully’s autopsies. 

Maggie started to gag, smelling it too and pinched her nose. “I didn’t fart, Daddy.”

That made Mulder chuckle and the mood lightened. “Well, that’s not from me, M. Not this time.” Holding Maggie tight Mulder started to jog back towards the hotels, then a new noise erupted, this time there was no mistaking it for anything, but a human scream. 

Behind them, a silhouette raced in their direction, screaming, stumbling, frantic. Mulder covered Maggie’s eyes as the man drew near, his skin bubbled and burst, like it was lava pouring from a volcano. “Help me!” the man yelled charging at them. “The water, it’s boiling, It’s eating me! Help Me!”

But before Mulder could react the man fizzled and melted before his eyes. 

Adrenaline replaced fear and Mulder sprinted towards the boardwalk, the usual lamps illuminating the weathered wood all blinked out one by one leaving only the moonlight to guide their way. Then a fresh beam of light created a path for him to see.

Maggie without instruction from Mulder had turned on her flashlight. Mulder ran as fast as his almost sixty year old legs could carry him which at the moment didn’t feel a day over 30. Behind them Mulder felt heat at their backs and another stream of light absorbed the flashlight’s blaze. Mulder looked back and slowed his pace, realizing at once that fleeing was useless. The blinding light froze him, burned his lungs and strained at his muscles as he held Maggie so tight he thought he might be crushing her. He could taste the bile at the back of his throat as he forced his fear back down, afraid his worst nightmare had come true. The putrid smell of rotting fish continued to flood his nostrils. Mulder backpedaled. They weren’t more than twenty yards from Scully.

“Trust me, M. I will not let them hurt you,” Mulder raged, through gritted teeth. He rotated Maggie to his other arm and with his right hand, reached for his handgun and aimed it into the blinding light squeezing out three bullets as he continued to run towards the hotel. Mulder put Maggie on the ground. “Run to Mommy, M,” he shouted. “Run inside and protect Mommy.”

“Shells, Daddy,” Maggie cried back.

Mulder blinked. Maggie was missing her pouch. Shit. “Alright M, go, run, I’ll get the seashells.”

He waited for her to run inside the pool area where he could see Scully with a book in the hot tub, looking up when she saw Maggie. Before Scully could meet his eyes he turned back and ran towards the light, his flashlight in one hand and gun in the other. He swept his beam across the cold sand frantically searching for her pouch. Once he reached the beach again, he heard it again, that awful sound, not quite human, but not quite animal either. It was a deep powerful reverberating sound. Mulder spotted the pouch and grabbed it, slinging it around his neck, then pointing both the gun and flashlight out towards the water. No one, no thing, was getting near his family.

All around the edge, which expanded as far as the moonlight was able to illuminate, figures were staggering and lunging out of the water. The scent of rotting fish was physically painful at this point. As each ghost or zombie, or whatever they were, emerged, they immediately broke into an erratic sprint directly towards Mulder, running even faster than the first one they had encountered. SHIT.

Mulder leveled his handgun towards the nearest sprinting figure, using his flashlight as a guide. He squeezed off four more shots continuing to walk towards where these beings were running from. Far out in the ocean a massive shape slowly rose up from the surface of the water. This wasn’t an alien craft or some man made submarine. They weren’t out in the Atlantic to trade genetic code. This was a ghost ship. The stench stronger than ever, the bodies running from it and at Mulder, now reaching the hundreds. Mulder turned, running back to the hotel, realizing he could not hold them off, screaming, “SCULLLAAYYY!!” 

The ghost sailors were all around him now sprinting about the sand, Mulder reached the pool area and held his little girl in his arms. “M! Are you okay!”

“Yes, Daddy,” she replied, but her eyes were wide in a trance-like terror staring at the sights on the beach.

Scully with Mulder clutching their daughter, ran inside, not stopping until they were back up on the 12th floor of their hotel room frantically grabbing their belongings and when they opened the blinds they saw…. Nothing. 

The wind had died down, the ocean had calmed. The moon had returned from out of the clouds and the ship had vanished.

“What was that Mulder?” Scully dared to ask.

“I believe it was the tortured souls coming back. Human hybrid sailors tortured until death coming to take what was left of their humanity..”

13 October 2021

A hum. That’s all Mulder heard. A low pitched sound he felt inside his bones, vibrating like the baritone of a brass instrument, increasing in volume and power. Mulder instinctively ran up to the second floor of his home. The electricity had gone out and he had to search blindly for his twin son and daughter. He scooped up one in each hand, the sound now reverberating and echoing, reflecting off the atmosphere, the trees, the house, almost as if circling the property. The sound, whatever it was, felt very real.

He looked out the window half expecting the trees to be bent by a hurricane or the skis to open up, but the earth lay unnaturally still, as if the tides were no longer being pulled by the moon. 

Then Mulder saw lights, tubes and wires of a great ship came into view, large enough to block out the horizon. It was mammoth, with a rounded dome, reaching at least several hundred yards up into the sky and with a width of at least twice that. It took him only a few moments to realize what it was.

“You’re not beaming anyone up today,” Mulder shouted with all the air in his lungs, “Not on my freaking birthday!!”

It was a spaceship. Definitely too large to be an ARV. No, this was an alien ship. The ship continued to move towards their property until it was hovering right over their home. Mulder raced to Maggie’s bedroom to see Maggie with arms outstretched, both palms facing upward towards the ship, her head tilted back staring into the beam coming through the window and now surrounding her. Then the beam flashed and burned out, the sky went black, and Mulder went blind. Frantically, he groped for his daughter, his wife, yelling, shouting their names until his voice went hoarse. 

Mulder opened his eyes. Thankfully, it was a dream. Lying on his back, he rotated his head towards the sucking sounds to see Scully with Liv in her arms performing their morning feeding.

“Morning,” Scully smiled, her face brightening as their eyes locked. 

Running a hand over the spattering of hair across his chest Mulder replied in kind. 

“I could tell you were having one of your nightmares.. it’s been years..” Scully said solemnly, “Do you know what might have triggered it?”

“It wasn’t about Samantha. I haven’t had one of those since the night I said goodbye. No, this was about Maggie.”

“She’s growing fast. The more the world opens up to her, the more dangers she’ll be exposed to. I’m sure it was just underlying concerns manifesting themselves into your subconscious.”

“Possibly.” Mulder took in a deep breath of the crisp morning air coming through their screened bedroom window, his body slowly waking. “You are the one that has the visions, not me,” he added for good measure.

“Can I help?” he asked, nodding towards his baby girl suckling at Scully’s left breast. 

“I have some newly expressed milk I just placed in the fridge right before they woke. You can prepare a bottle and feed Ley if you like.”

“I can do that,” Mulder replied, performing a sit-up and sitting at the edge of the bed assessing his muscles for any aches and pains. Nope. Today would be a good day.

When he returned, he sat in the chair next to Scully and watched as his son took the bottle without much of a fuss. Unscathed at the prospect of it not being an actual nipple. Mulder pressed his lips to his son’s head and his heart expanded, filling his arteries with fresh warm blood and nutrients. 

Sometime every morning, as much as Mulder tried to push it away, the past crept in. The boards of the old house creaked in defiance and his own heart tried to avoid it settling in his chest, but even so, his brain had to go through the motions before he found peace to move on with the rest of his day. Today, as he glanced at Scully feeding her daughter he considered for the moment his father and mother having to make a choice of trusting their child to a different species, to save Samantha in exchange for the human race. How do you live knowing your daughter was out there surviving or possibly dying from whatever they might choose to cast on her, a horrific cloning program, to become a genetic hybrid and their son, left in the hope to uncover the truth, burdened with the sins of his fathers, his life stripped, in bleak hope he could fight the future. He stared at his own son as his eyes welled and the vice squeezed his heart a little more. Had he truly saved his son from any such fate? Mulder felt Scully’s gaze lift him from his pensiveness. “They were wrong, Scully.”

She didn’t ask who “they” were, after so many years, she knew all too well the ghosts that came to haunt them in the late night or early evening hours. “How’s that?”

“The Well-Manicured Man once told me that only your science could save me, and it did, it does, but Scully, my soul was saved by so much more than your science.”

Scully’s eyes softened and she lifted Liv to burp her. “And I’ll do it all over again.” 

Mulder reached for her hand currently rubbing Liv’s back and gave it a squeeze. She returned the sentiment and lightning spread like a pinwheel inside his chest. 

Tiny footsteps tapped the hardwood floor of the hallway before Maggie appeared in the doorway carrying a small box. “Happy Birthday, Daddy.” 

Mulder took it and smiled, handing Ley to Scully as she put Liv down for her nap. “Thanks, M. Happy Birthday to you too.”

“Mommy wrapped it,” Maggie eagerly explained. 

“She did a very good job,” Mulder replied, observing that every last piece was taped tightly into place. 

He ripped open the paper and slid open the box to find a frame with a picture of him and Maggie and the tag,  _ I’ll always be your little girl, you’ll always be my hero. _

Maggie opened her arms and ran into his. Mulder could feel the sting of his eyes and a rush of love fill his body. He avoided Scully’s eyes knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold back if he looked at her. “Thank you M, I love it. I’m going to put it right on my desk.”

“It’s me and you, Daddy,” Maggie said, pointing at the picture.

“Yes, it is M. You, and me.” Mulder let her slide off his lap and pull at his hand.

“We open my presents now, Daddy,” Maggie said, dragging him. 

“Mommy is still feeding Ley. Don’t you want to open them in front of Mommy?”

“No. She knows what she got me,” Maggie replied stubbornly.

When they got down the stairs there was a sign hung across the room,  _ Happy Birthday, Maggie and Daddy!! _

On the coffee table lay a bunch of opened presents. Maggie’s eyes bulged as she covered her open mouth. Then she started to cry. “Daddy, my presents! They’re gone!”

Mulder quickly bent down to Maggie. “M, don’t cry. It’s a mystery. We will find your presents. But first, we have to find the clues. Can you find the clues?”

Her tears quickly vanished and Maggie determinedly pushed away the boxes and looked over the birthday wrapping paper. Nothing seemed peculiar. Mulder joined in, but Maggie was already onto the rest of the room, looking under tables, running her fingers over her shelf of books, then running to the twins pack-n-play, gripping the netting. “Daddy, what’s that?”

“I think you found it M. Our first clue.”


	19. 60 Years of Mulder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the year 2021 and it's Mulder's 60th and Maggie's 3rd birthday!
> 
> There's a scavenger hunt as Mulder, Scully, and Maggie use the clues and colors to find Maggie's presents, then Mulder and Scully go to the drive-in, and at the end of the night there's one more birthday surprise for Mulder.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50571638676/in/dateposted/)

13 October 2021

Mulder leaned into the twin’s Pack and Play, picking up a paper with nine colored squares. “Is this what you’re curious about, M?” he asked his daughter.

“Yes,” she said happily. 

“What do you think it means?” she shrugged and he read the bottom. “Follow the colors and clues and find your presents.” He smiled at Maggie excitedly. “I think you found the map, M.” He handed it to her and a marker. “You keep track of the colors, I’ll read the clues.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

He reached back into the Pack and Play and pulled out the index card with the first written clue. “What’s the first color clue, M?”

“Black, Daddy.” Maggie said, the tip of her pudgy finger brushing the black square.

Mulder read from the index card. “The clue says, where dogs sleep.” 

Maggie started to run upstairs then stopped halfway up the steps. “We need flashlights, Daddy.”

“How come, M? Are we searching a dark place?”

Maggie paused and pursed her lips, scrunching her eyebrows in such a way that made Mulder glow. “I don’t know Daddy, but we need flashlights.”

Mulder nodded. “Okay, I’ll get the flashlights.” Mulder reached into his desk and handed Maggie her Playskool flashlight while he took his Ultrabrite and with flashlights glowing, up the stairs they went. 

The twins now fed and asleep, Scully met them in the hallway on the way to Maggie’s room. “I see the hunt has begun.”

“You coming?” Mulder asked, Maggie already running ahead. “We wouldn’t want to do it without you.” He held her gaze. “I don’t know that we can.” He slowed his words and whispered, “I don’t remember where we put everything.”

Scully chuckled, then looked up at him through her lashes, arcing her brow. “Well, don’t take too long, you still have to open your gift.”

Mulder closed the space between them, bathing in the hot sweet tension. He closed his eyes and leaned in... 

“Daddy!” Maggie called, breaking through their cocoon. She was waving a Little Genius starter kit box, very excited.

“You found it, M,” Mulder replied. “Where was it?”

“In the doggy bed,” she said cooly. “It’s from Aunt Ellen.” She handed him the next clue.

“It says, Mums the word.” He looked down towards Maggie. The next color is orange. Do you know which square is orange, M?”

“It’s the punkin’ Daddy,” she said almost condescendingly.

“Well, then let’s go find it.” Mulder powered on Scully’s flashlight and held the beam under his chin to create an eerie glow over his features before handing it to her. Scully smiled, rotating the flashlight, caressing his body flirtatiously with the beam, before walking ahead of him down the stairs.

They found Maggie frustrated on the porch, her arm elbow deep inside the pumpkin. Frowning she said, “It’s not here.”

“The clue said, ‘Mums the word.’ Mum is a flower,” Scully said. “Do we have any orange flowers, Maggie?”

Maggie looked around and grinned, taking flight down the stairs at the bottom of the porch. She carefully rustled through the flowers and pulled out a kinderbot. 

“That’s a robot, M,” Mulder explained. “We’ll learn to code together. Build programs for the robot. You like it?”

“Yes,” Maggie nodded. 

“It’s from your Aunt Shira,” Scully said.

“The next clue is where the fox lives,” Mulder read.

Swords of light bounced from tree trunks as the three stepped into the woods on their property. With lots of searching a painted purple rock came into view. Lying next to it was a purple briefcase. Maggie started jumping as soon as she saw it. It was the Little Mermaid hair and makeup case she had asked for. “This present is from William and Molly.”

She found a wooden doctor activity center under the porch swing from her Uncle Walter, a Dora backpack with wheels under the bed from her Uncle Jeffrey, a pink tool set in her princess tent from Monica and John, a large bucket filled with dinosaurs was a gift from her Uncle Bill.

“What’s the next color, M?” 

“Red.”

“Okay, well, the clue is: Where Mommy keeps the lawnmower. You know where that is, M?”

She paused a moment and shrugged.

“It’s in the backyard.”

Maggie scrunched her face and spun around with her arms extended, laughing. Mulder was losing her attention.

“What color is the shed Maggie?”

A grin grew across her face. “Red.” Then Maggie took off. Mulder looked over at Scully who shrugged at him and ran after her. They waited for Scully who was jogging close behind and assisted Maggie opening the shed and there, sitting in the dark, was a Princess Jones cupcake doll surrounded by her books. Maggie ran up to it and hugged it tight, spinning around to look back at her parents. 

“Is that the one you wanted?” Scully asked her.

Maggie nodded, kissing the doll.

“That’s from your brother and sister,” Scully added. “Now Daddy can read the books to all of you. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” Maggie agreed, but looked a little sad.

“Maggie, what’s wrong?” Scully asked.

“Nothing,” Maggie pouted.

“Is that all the colors, Maggie? I think you might have one present left,” Mulder reminded her. 

She looked at the board of colors and what had been marked off. Then raised her eyes towards her father. “Green.”

“Yes. The last clue is green. It’s what Mommy and Daddy use to water the flowers. Do you know it?”

Maggie giggled. “Yup.” 

Maggie led them to the side of the house and as soon as it came into view she screeched. She jumped into the motorized jeep and hugged her animatronic baby yoda. She was beaming as bright as the sun.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50571783872)

“That is your present from me and Mommy. Are you happy with your gifts?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” Maggie agreed.

“What do you say, Maggie?” Scully asked.

“Thank you,” she shouted and threw her arms tight around her mommy.

Mulder spent the next hour demonstrating to Maggie and her baby yoda how to operate her new motorized Jeep and Scully waited for them in the house. William pulled up just as they reached the porch. “Did I miss the scavenger hunt?”

“I’m afraid so,” Mulder admitted, wasting no time unstrapping his granddaughter from the back seat of William’s car and cradling her in his arms. “You know your sister, once she gets her mind wrapped around something there’s really no stopping her.”

William patted Mulder on the back. “Much like her father. I’d like to give you your present now.” He handed him a birthday card. “And you can use it as soon as today.”

Mulder transferred the baby into William’s arms and took the card, carefully opening it as not to tear the contents. “William, you’ve had so many expenses this year, I really don’t need anything.”

“This didn’t cost us anything,” William answered. “Molly and I are going to watch the kids and you and mom are going to enjoy the day together.”

Mulder looked up at him. “That’s awfully nice William, but it’s M’s birthday too and we should spend it with her.”

William shook his head. “We’re taking her to the kiddie amusement park. She won’t even miss you.”

“Maybe, but I think it would be more fun if we all went together,” Mulder said.

“Is that really what you want to do because it’s no problem..”

“Yeah, that’s what I want to do,” Mulder said, holding up the coupon before stuffing it into his shirt pocket. “But I’m keeping this coupon because I’m still going to take you up on the offer, just some other day.”

That night…

The gang piled out of the two SUVs, Mulder and Scully, each with a baby in their arms, Maggie holding a stuffed Snoopy doll in one hand, a light up spinner toy in the other, an empty popcorn bucket hanging from the bend in her arm. Molly held Hannah, and William carried into the house the diaper bags and backpacks, and the rest of the baby artillery. 

Once everyone settled in, William made one more proposal. “It’s not too late to go out with Mom.”

Mulder chewed at the inside of his cheek. “I wouldn’t even know what to do at this hour. We already ate and I don’t want to take her to a bar. Your mom and I never really did the date thing.”

“You could go bowling… ice skating… fishing… football game?”

Mulder shook his head at each one.

“Why don’t you two go to the old drive-in? It’s your birthday so you get to pick the movie and it will be just the two of you.”

Mulder tilted his head in contemplation. “That’s not bad. Yeah, yeah we could do that.” At that time Mulder looked up and there was Scully. “What do you say?”

*

Mulder returned to the SUV during the previews with a small popcorn, extra butter, and a large soda. “I think I spent our retirement on popcorn today,” he grumbled.

Scully popped a handful into her mouth and smirked. “Just watch the movie.”

The movie started and Scully leaned into Mulder, he tentatively placed his arm around her and she snuggled in tight. It made Mulder smile and his heart warm. William was right, this had been long overdue. He pressed his lips to the top of her head and she looked up at him, expanding his heart, sending tingles into his chest. 

As if she felt it too, Scully turned, putting her small warm hand on the back of his neck, lifting her lips to his. They kissed, lightly, it was meant to just be a peck. They actually had come to watch the movie, but when their lips pressed against the others, their tongues had to get involved and that led to several more moments of their mouths gliding over the others, their tongues caressing, their breaths quickening. Mulder’s cock throbbed and hardened, growing against the stiff denim. 

He felt Scully rotate towards him in the cramped space, her back against the steering wheel, her tongue in his mouth, her hips tilted towards his, her breasts against his chest, her whole body sending a message that was undeniable: she was ready to give him one of his birthday presents. 

Her tongue fluttered against his, and his hands were deep in the softness of her hair, and it was like time unspooled, carrying them right back to their first time together. He pulled her against him, thinking that he'd never get her close enough, that if he could fold her inside of him, like a mother tucking a baby into her coat for warmth, he'd do it. And even though he knew she didn’t need it, he'd keep her warm, he'd keep her safe, he'd keep her with him, always. 

She nibbled at his chin, his ear, touching his face with her fingertips, sighing, whispering, "It’s good to be us again." Then paused and cocked an eyebrow, "How long _has_ it been?"

"It's been a little while," Mulder returned, putting his arm around her lush curves, his fingers playing with her soft skin, beautiful hair, beautiful everything- every line, stretch mark, and scar. They were what made her Scully, and what made her his, and so he fell in love with them over and again.

Suddenly she slipped from his arms, unfastened his pants, and eased his briefs over his hips. He felt her hand brush his cock before taking him into her mouth. He sighed, eyes shut, thinking about how unbelievably good it felt, glancing at the closest cars to see their windows fogged, when Scully gave a throaty moan, then rolled her tongue up his shaft and whispered, "Look at me."

He looked and saw that she had her eyes open, locked on his, as she opened her mouth, hollowed her cheeks, and slid him down her throat. He groaned loudly and wondered how long into their relationship it had been when she had first discovered how much that turned him on. 

Scully’s expression went from ardor to confusion as she felt his mind wandering.

"What?" she asked, lifting her head up and accidentally bumping the horn. 

"Shh," he said, blushing, pulling her up quickly so they were face-to-face again, looking around to see if anyone had taken offence. When the coast was clear, he smiled into her eyes and slid his hands between her legs, positioning his fingers and thumb the way she'd taught him she liked. Except that wasn't right. She hadn't taught him. They'd figured out together what he needed to do to get her to come. He nuzzled against her, his lips on her neck, nibbling and kissing his way up to her earlobe, where she'd always been ticklish. 

"Mulder," she whispered, as he worked his fingers against her slick seam, losing himself inside her pleasure, falling in love with her beauty all over again. Mulder watched her squeeze her eyes shut as she clamped her thighs against his wrist and snapped her hips up, once, twice, three times before she froze, all the muscles in her thighs and belly and bottom tense and quivering, contracting against his fingers.

Before she could recover, he guided her clumsily to the back of the car, away from watchful eyes, positioning themselves in the bench seating as best they could, him between her legs, slipping inside her. After the first thrust he had to hold still, knowing that if he kept moving, if he gave himself up to the exquisite tightness, the heat, he would explode. It had been some days since their last encounter, but more than that, this unexpected thrill, what she had done to him in the driver’s seat, and her sudden need, it surged inside him. He wanted her to come at least once more, with him, and he didn't want her to tease him, the way she sometimes used to if they hadn't been with each other in a while and he finished before she'd had a chance to get started.

"You're not trying to beat a personal record here," Scully had said. He'd always taken care of her . . . or, sometimes, when they were sleepy, he would just curl around her, holding her close, with his fingers inside her and her fingers working at her clitoris, taking care of her together.

He reached down and stroked her cheek, then her hair. "Oh, God," she whispered, swiveling her hips in a way he knew would send him right over the edge. She gasped and shut her eyes with his next thrust, and then neither of them spoke. She had one hand on his shoulder, the other slowly stroking his back, from the nape of his neck to the base of his spine.

"You feel so good," she whispered as he moved inside her . . . Not holding back he plunged deeper into her maddening clutch, her insatiable heat. Scully moaned, her hands locking onto his shoulders, her breath against his face, her voice in his ear, urging him on.

"Scully," he gasped as she whispered his name over and over.

If there was going to be awkwardness, it would come when they'd finished; when they looked down and saw that he was still wearing his socks and shoes, pants at his ankles and she still had her shirt on and panties hooked around one ankle. That they were wrapped in a pretzel that would require joints to crack and muscles to moan in order to redress. 

They carried each other to their climax, then Scully curled herself against his chest, into his arms, saying, "Happy Birthday," in that warm Scullyglow voice she often had afterwards to let him know he had been a good puppy.

"Thank you," Mulder replied. He'd been smiling for so long he was sure that his face would ache in the morning. "I feel like . . ."

"What?" she asked, quietly. "How does 60 years feel?" Scully, as always, interrogating him, quizzing him about his emotions, pushing him to give her more than just a "fine" or "happy" or "tired." Just as he pushed her. It was their form of open communication.

"Like everything's changed," he answered. "Physically, maybe my stamina isn’t what it once was, but I don’t feel my age. Spiritually, like we went out on a case in 1994 and we came back, and decades had passed, and now we're home."

"Now we’re home," she repeated.

“And I think we missed most of this movie,” Mulder remarked, getting dressed and opening the back door of the SUV, Scully almost falling out of the car behind him. “That’s okay, there’s always streaming.”

Back at the house Mulder and Scully kissed the twins goodnight and readjusted their blankets as they slept in their respective bassinets. However, when they went into Maggie’s room, she was on the floor playing with her new toys and talking to no one. 

“Maggie?” Scully asked, tentatively. “Who are you talking to?”

“Grandma.” Maggie said, turning the page. “She’s reading me a story.”

Scully looked over at Mulder. “Mulder this has gone on too long. We may need to talk with a professional.”

Mulder opened his mouth to reply, when a silver beam of moonlight crept through the window and cast into the room, the speckled dust in the air glittering into form, a woman. “Maggie,” Mulder said. Scully tilted her head towards him and he understood why. It was the first time he had ever called his daughter anything, but M. But he wasn’t calling his daughter. He was speaking to the stardust that had filtered into the room and formed the spirit of Margaret Scully. “Mom, you’re able to speak to M?” he asked.

The form nodded. 

“We all miss you. Have you seen our twins?” 

She smiled, the warm motherly smile that could only come from Maggie. She nodded again. 

Mulder felt a tug at his sleeve. “Mulder?” Scully asked, timidly. “Who are you talking to?”

“You don’t see her, you don’t see your..” and before he could finish a cloud covered over the moon and the figure vanished into the dark.

“I don’t see what Mulder?” 

“Scully, M is not speaking to an imaginary friend, she’s reading with your..”

“Don’t say it, Mulder,” Scully warned. “My mother is with God, in peace, she’s not haunting our little girl.”

“I saw her, Scully. I _saw_ her. After everything we’ve witnessed, all these years, how can you say you _don’t_ believe?”

“Mulder, you saw what you wanted to see, a trick of the dark,” she said, turning on the ceiling fan bulbs so the room was flooded in light.

“I know what I saw, Scully, and it wasn’t some trick of the mind,” he repeated, indignantly.

“Mommy, don’t fight with Daddy,” Maggie said, her face all scrunched with worry.

Scully quickly scooped her up. “Mommy and Daddy weren’t fighting. Were we Daddy?”

“No, we uh, we were just…. respecting our differences.” 

Scully picked up one of the books on the floor and patted Maggie’s bed for Mulder to sit. “Come on Daddy, let’s read Maggie a bedtime story together.” Scully looked up towards the window as the moon began to show its face and maybe it was because she _did_ want to believe or maybe she caught a glimpse of the truth, but she could have sworn she saw her mother standing, beaming with happiness, sharing Mulder and Maggie’s birthday.


	20. My Fire in the Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a teary eye, I give you the final chapter of the Rooted in Friendship series. Five years this story has been a part of my life, a part of me, so I wanted to make sure I wrote an ending for it.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50595900542/in/dateposted/)

Mulder sent a high lob to William who tapped the plastic ball towards Maggie. The ball rolled slowly to her feet, and she covered it with her bright blue and red striped glove, picked it up and toddled over towards her brother trying to tag him. William faked a stumble, enabling Maggie to catch up and tag him. “That’s two outs,” Finn announced.

Finn came up to bat next, tapping the ball a little harder than William, sending it rolling through Maggie’s legs. She bent over to watch it roll through, tucking her head so far she almost performed a somersault. 

“M, bend those knees and get the glove down,” Mulder instructed, demonstrating in one fluid motion a perfect fielding of a short hop with a smooth lift and fake throw to first.

Maggie tried her best to imitate her daddy, slapping her glove against the ground. “Come on, Finny!,” she yelled, “Hit the ball!” 

With Maggie’s turn at the plate, Mulder gripped the fat plastic purple bat lightly over his daughter’s fingertips. Crouching down he showed her the proper stance, positioning her hips. William tossed the ball and Maggie and Mulder swung together, tapping the wiffle ball with the fat meat of the bat. It was a solid hit and the ball flew down the third base line. “Run M!” Mulder urged. 

“You too, Daddy!” Maggie shouted back, Mulder running ahead and tossing her up in the air as she crossed the base. 

Mulder picked up his glove and started a three-way catch with William and Finn, Maggie raising her arms wanting them to throw it to her; Mulder tossing her the ball every so often. Maggie tried her best to throw, but it either went too far or hard into the ground. 

Mulder picked up the ball. “M, use your body, not your arm, shift the weight from back to front.” Mulder demonstrated and Maggie imitated. 

Mulder threw the ball high in the air, seam over seam the ball spun, and the world rotated ten years, landing in the glove of William, with shorter hair and a stockier build, 31 years of age. 

Finn tapped on the summer playlist on his phone and sent it through the new outdoor speakers Mulder bought him for Christmas. He grabbed his well-oiled mitt and slid his hand around the pocket. This wasn’t just any baseball glove. Mulder had purchased him a Wilson Clayton Kershaw A2000 Series glove. The glove he had dreamed about. Mulder had given him a little ribbing for liking the Dodgers, but he still came through. 

With a big grin, Finn bounced down the stairs of the back porch. “William, over here!” He waved and William sent a line drive right into the pocket. Whack! Finn loved the sound of the cowhide hitting the leather of his glove. He gave the ball a quick sniff to lock in the memories before sending the ball back into the air towards Mulder. Mulder did a quick turn, floating it Maggie’s way, with two hands she nicked it from the air and let it roll into the pocket of her glove. “Nice catch M!” Mulder shouted.

Maggie smiled giving a tap of her Yankees cap, the one she got for her 11th birthday. “I want to play a game!” she exclaimed, gently tossing it to Ley. The sun forced Maggie to rotate her Yankee cap’s bill to the front in order to keep out the sun. The large letters spelling out ‘Mulder’ and the number 42 coating the back of her jersey. Maggie was determined to be the first female starting pitcher for the Yankees and Mulder believed wholeheartedly that she would do it. 

Their dog, now gray with age, bounded out the screen door as Molly opened it for Scully, followed by Liv and the three grandchildren William had blessed them with. Monica and Doggett came into view walking up from around the front, Jen and Miri running ahead of them. Miri spouting, “Can we all spend the night at Aunt Monica’s again?”

Scully nodded her approval. 

Maggie impatiently shouted, “Come on, let’s play a game!”

“Alright M. You can be captain of one team. Finn, you want to captain the other?” Mulder asked. While Maggie never fussed about her dad calling her M, or her mother calling her Maggie, she made everyone, even her teachers, call her Mulder.

“I’ll let you pick first, M,” Finn said. 

Scully walked over to Mulder as the children picked their teams. He wrapped her in a warm embrace as they watched their crew run, laugh, and play. Charlie and Trish said they were coming later and Jeffrey would be over soon with his wife and two kids, then there would really be a party. 

Mulder couldn’t wipe the smile off his face anymore than Scully. Their life, now full of friends and family, happiness and joy, had a serenity they had fought hard and long to achieve. Maybe they were never able to completely save the world, extinguish evil, but in the end, they learned to love fiercely, completely, through all the pain and loss that came with it, and save their loved ones and themselves.

Later that night...

Mulder selected one of their more expensive bottles of cabernet and carried it, the opener, and two wine glasses through the back door, but not before streaming soft music through the outdoor speakers. He walked the small distance to the fire pit, joining Scully, carefully placing the contents down on the small table before lighting the wood he had gathered from the pile chopped last winter. With the logs ignited he opened the bottle of wine and filled each glass with the deep red liquid, swirling it for a few seconds before handing a glass to Scully, holding his out for her to clink. 

“Cheers,” he said as he locked their eyes, then took a long drink. He sat down next to her on the soft blanket Scully had laid out, enjoying the cool breeze and looking up at the stars. With everyone asleep in the house, they were very much alone. Scully stargazed with him, recounting the day, the kids, themselves, then they fell quiet. Not for lack of conversation, but to appreciate the company and scenery of trees and sky, the fresh air filled with the sweet scent of pine and winter honeysuckle.

She reached for his hand and he entwined their fingers, his palm pressed to hers, his thumb caressing the web of her thumb. Around Mulder, everything came alive. Even the wine. The velvety texture, the scent of dark ripe berries, currants, and vanilla, the rich, juicy black plum kissed with cocoa floating across her tongue. The warmth it left behind. The scent of life outdoors, the taste of sweet and sour in her glass, the feel of his skin, his very human touch. All of it contributed to the making of a perfect evening.

She lifted her head to look over to him and he smiled. It was cocky and bold, hinting at becoming warm and seductive. Crooked, with a promise of something devious and a hint of dirty in it. Everything inside her went warm in an instant. That was the effect that beautiful face had on her. 

He pulled her towards him with their laced fingers. Brushing her chin with a fingertip he kissed her gently on the mouth and spoke in low monotone. “I want to make love with you out here, in the night, under the moon and the stars, for all the unidentified flying objects to see.”

“Mulder, what if someone wakes up?”

“The back door is locked. The porch light will give us enough warning.”

“Muuulder.”

Mulder put his mouth right up to her cheek, his hot breath tickling her ear. Whispering he said, “Take your clothes off, Scully.”

Scully licked at her top lip. She loved his adventurous, rebel side. “You, first,” she challenged.

Mulder stood up on the blanket, lifted his shirt, then slid down his sweats, his eyes never leaving Scully’s face. She watched everything he did, and when he lowered his boxers her breath labored; she looked him in the eye and pressed her teeth hard into her bottom lip. Her turn. 

“I can help you, if you like,” he said, unabashed by his lack of clothing, kneeling back onto the blanket, the fire keeping them warm and making his skin look almost bronze in its glow.

In an effort to surprise him, she lifted off her shirt and shimmied from her pants. He practically crawled over the blanket to join his mouth to hers. He kissed her fervorously, leaving her breathless, heat rushing over her, his strength dousing her in a sensual haze. 

His electric fingers grazed her skin until her entire body became an erogenous zone; then they gradually slid inside her, arcing his hand so she could grind against the heel of his palm. He worked her until she was a panting mess, her back slightly arched, head tilting back a bit, small whimpers escaping her mouth. The most exquisite sight to behold. It pounded his heart as hard as his erection.

He felt her eyes staring at his lower regions, and decided to give her a show, reaching down and stroking himself, long and slow. 

Scully’s mouth fell open as her eyes stared intently at his hand. She chewed at her lip and he pumped a little faster. Breathing out a seductively long moan, her eyes fell to half-mast.

It was like an invitation he was powerless to refuse, pumping her with the same rhythm he was using on himself. Her whole body tensed up, her back in a severe arch. He picked up the pace and pressed his palm harder against her clit and in their younger days they would have exploded together and went again, but now he’d have to wait. He let go of himself and enjoyed her moans, moaning with her, as he felt her orgasm in his heart and inside himself, without coming, taking pleasure in each of her aftershocks. He kissed her lips, then said, “I brought fruit.”

Chuckling at the startled look on her face he pulled away, grabbed a cherry, then straddled her legs and leaned down to touch the cherry to her lips. Mulder said softly, “For you.”

It was soft and plump, succulent, sweet, perfect just like Scully. Her teeth sunk into the flesh and she pulled back, chewing slowly, trying to hold back a seductive smile.

He took the other half and bit out the pit, woofing it into the fire. Then painted the juice around her mouth. He grabbed another as he watched her tongue clean her lips, then put it up to her mouth. She bit again leaving the pit for him. He spit again, then drug the fruit around the rosy areola of her breast, making her nipple bunch up tight from the cold. The cherry turned her pale skin a deep red and it made him so hard he almost wanted to explode. His mouth covered her nipple and he licked the juice then squeezed more then licked. He did it all again with her other breast and when he was finally ready to start on her belly she was already stained almost as dark as the wine. 

He moved down her abdomen kissing her gently as he went, worshipping her, dragging his scratchy face along her sensitive skin. He bit and dripped, bit and dripped, several more times until the little concave dip of her stomach was holding a pool of crimson. 

He licked up every last bit, then ate her out like he was starving, making her moan, whine, and whimper while her whole back buckled up and juice dripped down her body. He plunged his cherry soaked tongue deep between her folds, combining her divine nectar with the sweet fruit’s, sucking and licking until he felt her crest and writhe, until she was licked clean.

Gently, reverently, Mulder slid up her body, the intensity of his love for her showing strong in his eyes, then lowered his mouth to hers. Every hard solid sculpted inch of him. His mere presence could still make her heart pound and she still drowned in his hazel eyes. As always, he went straight to her heart. Scully parted her lips. 

His lips were warm and soft and tasted of sweet cherries as they moved against hers, his hands cupping her face, changing the angle of the kiss, but when his tongue met hers, all the gentleness was gone.

He swept into her mouth again and again until Scully lost her breath. Her hands dove into his hair, as he stroked down to her thighs and up her back. His hips fell to meet hers and Scully felt his hard hot length against her center. His tongue caressed hers as his hands once again explored her breasts. She quivered and moaned, her hips rubbing his erection, sliding easily from her arousal. A combination of pleasure and torture because she wanted him inside her bad enough to taste it, each orgasm he gave her a tease of what she really needed, to join with the other half of her soul.

His thumb brushed over her already-aching nipple and her head fell back, breaking contact. He lowered his head slowly away from her mouth, his eyes riveted on her face. Those soft skilled lips closed over her bruising nipple and Scully felt her breath leave. Delicate little muscles deep inside her pulsed, demanding to be stroked. He groaned and she answered. Strong tugs gave so much pleasure and a hint of pain. She could feel his erection against her. He wanted her. Needed her. Just as she wanted and needed him. She reached down between them and grasped him firmly and he groaned again against her breast. Eyes closed he sucked her nipple harder, his tongue lashing it in a fierce rhythm.

Each stroke of her hand over his cock made her wetter, made her feel more. She moaned again and Mulder released her nipple, rosy, red, and puckered. He moved his mouth to the other peak and began again. A deep ache between Scully’s thighs began to build. She stroked him faster, her hips gyrating with her hand. Moving the head of his shaft, now nestled between her thighs, teasing her clit. It was too much, but she couldn’t stop. The blunt heat of his huge cock between her legs and the pull from his mouth were building to the point of no return. 

His hand tightened at her hip as he tugged her nipple with his teeth and sucked deep, she pumped him faster, now lubricated thoroughly by her, his tip rubbing against her clit, her folds riding his shaft as she came.

Mulder groaned loudly, but continued to suck until the pulsing slowed, then broke from her breast to capture her mouth. Scully instinctively opened her thighs wide and Mulder pushed inside grunting out, “Oh. Scully.”

They shared a brief smile before Mulder rotated his hips and ground his pubic bone against her very sensitive clit, warming up her insides until they ached and pulsed around him. Then he pulled out and slid back in; she felt the throbbing stretch every time he sheathed himself with her. They were made for each other, two complete entities that made an even greater whole. Mulder with the ability to fill her completely and Scully to mold around him with perfection. 

Mulder’s eyes glazed over and he thrusted into her over and over, tilting her hips up so she got the friction she needed, the speed quickening, propelled by each other’s need. Scully rode him as he thrusted into her. “Mulder,” she moaned and then shouted, “Mulder. Oh. Oh God. Mulder.”

“I love you, Scully,” poured from his heart and out his own lips as he pressed her into the blanket with his weight with long fast strokes and showered her lips with small kisses. 

It hit them like lightning. Her entire body electrified as her orgasm exploded around his thick shaft. He drove into her pacing each wave with a violent rhythm. Scully clung to him with all her might, burying her face in his bare hard chest. It was so powerful she couldn’t even scream, the intensity of the sensations overtaking everything. Mulder released a primal sound as she felt the first hot surge let loose deep inside her. The last waves of her own orgasm choked his shaft on the next thrust. He stayed deep inside, complete, as he came over and again inside her. 

He held her tight in the fresh night air, feeling like they were back in their thirties and less encumbered. All their confessions lost in the darkness between them. The important difference between now and then was he had stopped focusing on the what-ifs and learned to be thankful and grateful for all he had.

“I love you, Mulder,” she said, kissing his forehead, then his lips.

He squeezed her tight and stroked her hair, glancing up at the vast sky of infinite light and darkness. Even with the endless galaxies of space, his entire world he held in his arms. “What now, Scully?” he asked as she joined his gaze up towards the heavens.

“I don’t know, Mulder, but we will do it together.”

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164474329@N02/50592524027/in/dateposted/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why cherries? It's a little throwback to an old fic about cherry filling. In fact, there are a lot of easter eggs and callbacks to other fics, shows, songs, books, etc. imbedded in the entire Rooted series.
> 
> If you ever have an idea that you want included in this series, I am willing to write single chapter fics for this universe, so I am leaving the light on for you and the door open a crack. Inbox me here or on Tumblr.
> 
> I'm currently writing the fic Road to All Things which is a s7-s8 fic, and in it I'm exploring if things went down a little differently than the events of Rooted in Friendship, so it is a different universe. I'm also going back and editing my fics and will finally finish the Table of Contents for each of the fics in the Rooted series to make things easier to find if you want to skip around or just read certain episodes. I might even take those extra chapters in Falling and fit them into Rooted in Friendship where they need to be in the timeline. 
> 
> I want to thank everyone for reading, your comments and kudos have kept me writing, your bookmarks and subscriptions have stolen my heart. I will forever be grateful to you for sharing this journey with me. Hope to keep in touch. Love Always, -CIDB


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